Huawei pushes back as pressure on Chinese firms grows amid trade spat

Bloomberg

Huawei Technologies Co. said a proposed ban on selling its gear to some US mobile providers isn’t lawful, pushing back against assertions it poses a risk as the Trump administration increases pressure on China over trade and national security.
The Shenzhen-based networking giant’s presence in the US “has been artificially restricted by unfounded allegations and suspicions based solely on misperceptions” about its relationship with China’s government, Huawei said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.
The agency under Chairman Ajit Pai, an appointee of
Donald Trump, has proposed barring telecommunications companies from using a federal subsidy to buy gear from companies such as Huawei and ZTE that are judged to be a national security risk.
Huawei, China’s top telecommunications equipment vendor and the world’s No. 3 smartphone maker, was founded in 1988 by former Chinese army engineer Ren Zhengfei. The company took the unusual step of publicising the minutes of a recent high-level meeting during which the ex-military officer emphasized the symbiotic relationship between the two world powers, and China’s dependence on cutting-edge American technology. Huawei will buy some 50 million chips from Qualcomm Inc. alone this year, he was cited as saying.
“The US-China trade dependency is mutual and extensive, I don’t foresee strong conflicts,” Ren was quoted as saying in a transcript posted on social media platform WeChat. “American communications technology crested in the 1960s, when we were mere college students.”
The rapid ascendancy however of Huawei and other Chinese companies in just the past decade has raised red flags. Another federal agency asked the FCC to block China Mobile Ltd. from entering the US market, citing national security grounds. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said the US “should stop groundless speculation and intentional suppression against Chinese companies.”
The US is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6, with China vowing to retaliate. Trump has also threatened additional tariffs on
$200 billion of Chinese imports that could be implemented if China imposes counter-measures. Talks between the US and China have stalled in part over American demands that Beijing reduce government support for high-tech industries.