Huawei: An unexpected symbol of technological threat, says report

A report titled, "Huawei is risky for Business as well as Governments" said that Chinese company's extensive ties to the state have both raised sharp concerns and foreign-policy professionals have suggested serious risk to both national security and commercial activities.

Referring to a recent report from the Netherlands, the article highlighted how Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei was accused of monitoring all the phone conversations made through the Netherlands's largest mobile network. "This is important not just for evaluating this one company but as a rubric to approach the threat stemming from the Chinese Communist Party's techno-nationalist development strategies and its use of nominally private firms -- to both national security and commercial enterprises," Foreign Policy report said.

Although Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei admits having served in China's military, however, he refuses to accept that the Chinese government and the army were involved in the founding of his company. According to the spokesperson for the company, Huawei's ties with the government are "no different" from that of any other private company in China. "But evidence showing a number of extraordinary measures taken by Chinese officials to protect Huawei, both at home and abroad, suggests otherwise," the Foreign Policy report added.

Evidence in several reports suggests that the state has helped Huawei in times of trouble range from official threats against countries that consider banning Huawei's participation in their 5G networks to what appears "to be the use of hostage diplomacy of foreign citizens." This report by the Foreign Policy magazine comes as a top company executive has admitted that the Chinese tech giant was getting affected by the US sanctions, and they are losing their smartphone market share to key rivals including Apple and Samsung.

"In less than two years, the United States slapped four rounds of sanctions against Huawei, with each round harsher than before. (The sanctions) caused extreme difficulties to Huawei's consumer businesses and made it impossible for us to ship our products," Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, was quoted as saying in a social media post by Sputnik. Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp were designated as national security threats by the US, saying they have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and China's military apparatus.