FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured at the IFA consumer tech fair in Berlin, Germany, September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
December 5, 2019
By David Kirton
SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – China’s Huawei has mounted a legal challenge against the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the body designated the technology giant as a security threat and tried to bar it from a government subsidy program.
The FCC last month voted unanimously to designate Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] and peer ZTE Corp <000063.SZ> as national security risks, barring their U.S. rural carrier customers from tapping an $8.5 billion government fund to purchase Huawei or ZTE telecommunications equipment.
Huawei said on Thursday it filed a petition with the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans challenging the FCC decision.
The FCC argued the companies’ ties to China’s government and military apparatus, and Chinese laws requiring that such companies assist the Chinese government with intelligence activities, pose a U.S. national security risk.
It also voted to propose requiring carriers remove and replace equipment from Huawei and ZTE in existing networks.
“Banning a company like Huawei, just because we started in China – this does not solve cyber security challenges,” Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer Song Liuping said at a news conference at the firm’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
He said the FCC failed to provide evidence to show Huawei is a security threat and claimed “this decision, just like the entity list in May, is based on politics, not security.”
The FCC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Huawei document was not yet available in the U.S. court filing system.
U.S. President Trump in May placed Huawei on the country’s trade blacklist, citing national security concerns, which banned companies from supplying Huawei with U.S. components without special licenses.
The move came after Washington brought criminal charges against Huawei, alleging theft of trade secrets, bank fraud and violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran. It has also sought to convince allies to ban it from the next generation of mobile telecommunications networks over spying fears – ratcheting up tension with Beijing as they engage in a tit-for-tat trade war.
The United States is now weighing expanding its power to stop more foreign shipments of products with U.S. technology to Huawei, Reuters reported last week.
Karl Song, vice president of Huawei’s corporate communications department, in a statement said the FCC rule threatened improving connectivity in rural America, and would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and even force some small carriers to go bankrupt.
(Reporting by David Kirton; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
