Huawei denies U.S. intelligence claims of backdoors in its network

Huawei is “indignant.”

The Chinese telecommunications company issued a boldly worded statement Wednesday denying a recent report in the Wall Street Journal that it has, for years, maintained secret backdoors into mobile phone networks across the globe. The claim, sourced to U.S. intelligence officials, has clearly struck a nerve. 

The allegations come on the heels of Huawei’s insistence this past September that the U.S. government launched “cyber attacks” against the company. Huawei, it would seem, has had enough. 

“The Wall Street Journal is clearly aware that the US government can’t provide any evidence to support their allegations, and yet it still chose to repeat the lies being spread by these US officials,” reads Huawei’s official statement. “This reflects The Wall Street Journal‘s bias against Huawei and undermines its credibility.”

The statement references reporting in the Washington Post, specifically noting that the U.S. government secretly ran a cryptography company for years. As such, U.S. officials were able to read the supposedly encrypted communications of governments around the world. 

“As evidenced by the Snowden leaks, the United States has been covertly accessing telecom networks worldwide, spying on other countries for quite some time,” it says. “The report by the Washington Post this week about how the CIA used an encryption company to spy on other countries for decades is yet additional proof.” 

We followed up with Huawei in an attempt to determine if it plans to take any action beyond this statement to dispute the Wall Street Journal’s reporting and claims by U.S. intelligence officials. A company spokesperson declined to provide additional comment.

Notably, the Journal reports that U.S. officials allegedly have “smoking gun” evidence that Huawei equipment creates a “spying risk.” 

Huawei, for its part, would very much like to examine that evidence itself. 

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“If the US does discover Huawei’s violations,” the statement concludes, “we again solemnly request the US to disclose specific evidence instead of using the media to spread rumors.”

In the meantime, expect more passionate statements from the telecommunications giant.