Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

 The US move to pressure its allies to ban Huawei 5G is a "dirty trick, dirty play," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Thursday, responding to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's rhetoric that countries banning Huawei would become "clean countries".

The US has always claimed to be a country with powerful values of democracy and freedom, but it can't tolerate a foreign private company, Hua said. "As an excellent private firm, the only fault of Huawei is that it's a Chinese firm, isn't it?"

Out of strong ideological prejudice, the US smears and attacks a Chinese company by using its national resources, in the name of "national security", Hua said, noting that the US now forces its "little brothers" to ban Huawei.

The US' PRISM spying program revealed that the US is the largest country of cyber-hacking, and some US companies including Apple and Cisco acknowledged several years ago that there are loopholes and backdoors with their equipment, Hua noted.

"It's a known fact that the US intelligence agencies have for a long time carried out illegal spying and surveillance activities toward almost all foreign governments, including its allies," Hua said.

She pointed out that Huawei provides services in more than 170 countries and regions, and there is no country reporting Huawei's equipment has security problems. No country has shown evidence that Huawei gear poses threats or has backdoors.

Hua gave the example of the UK. Huawei has established a cybersecurity testing center there to ensure that its products meet the regulator's standards, which were verified by British experts. Huawei is willing to sign treaties with all governments to ensure that there are no backdoors associated with its products, she said.

"I want to ask, which company in the world has confidence to do so? Is there any US company that could do so?" 

She expressed doubt, noting that "it's ridiculous for Pompeo to judge Huawei based on whether it's 'clean' or not."

On Wednesday, Pompeo applauded the UK move to ban Huawei equipment from its 5G networks. "The UK joins the US and now many other democracies in becoming 'clean countries' - nations free of untrusted 5G vendors. In the same way, many major telecom companies like Telefonica, Telco Italia, and NTT have become 'Clean Carriers'," he said.