A draft report written by the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee concludes that both Huawei and ZTE should be prevented from expanding their businesses in the U.S. due the possibility that they could threaten the national security of the U.S.
The draft report, which is set to be published in final form October 8, is the culmination of an 11-month investigation into the two corporations, which make wireless networking gear and cellular telephones. “U.S. network providers and system developers are strongly encouraged to seek other vendors for their projects,” said a portion of the report. It also said Huawei and ZTE “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems.” The authors of the report said that both companies were reluctant to hand over key documents about their relationships with the Chinese government. The authors also said they received “credible allegations” that suggested Huawei is guilty of bribery, corruption, discriminatory behavior, and other malfeasance. Huawei spokesperson Bill Plummer rejected the reports conclusions. “Baseless suggestions…that Huawei is somehow uniquely vulnerable to cyber mischief ignore technical and commercial realities, recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation, do nothing to protect national security, and should be exposed as dangerous political distractions from legitimate public-private initiatives to address what are global and industry-wide cyber challenges.” Plummer’s comments went submitted to Reuters via email.
It’s not clear how the report will affect Huawei and ZTE’s existing business relationships. MetroPCS, Sprint, Cricket, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA all sell Huawei and/or ZTE handsets.
