China’s digital giant Huawei has filed a lawsuit against the US government before a Texas court, challenging Washington’s ban on using the firm’s equipment in state agencies. Huawei also accused the US of hacking it.Huawei is disputing a US law before a Texas court in a bid to overturn a security ban against its products, the company's rotating chairman Guo Ping said in a statement on Thursday.
"This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers," Guo said.
Read more: Huawei vows US 'can't crush us'
The US government believes the Chinese company could implement so-called "backdoors" in their equipment, allowing them to gather vital data on US infrastructure, possibly under direction from Beijing spy agencies. In order to curb the potential security risk, the US Congress banned US government agencies and contractors from buying the company's equipment and services. Washington also tried to pressure other governments into banning the company's products.
On Thursday, Guo said that "Huawei has not and will never implant 'backdoors.'"
"The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products," he told reporters at a press conference in Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen.
"We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort," he added.
Read more: Using Huawei technology is a matter of faith
Huawei claims US hacked its servers
The chairman also claimed the US government had "hacked our servers and stolen our emails and source code," but he did not elaborate.
Other countries have been hesitant to move against Huawei, which is expected to lead the market on the global introduction of ultrafast 5G telecommunications. Huawei is the biggest producer of telecoms equipment in the world.
The company's founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei has moved to counter the campaign in the media, pledging that his company will never share data with the Chinese government.
The Thursday lawsuit comes as Ren's daughter and Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is facing a possible extradition to the US after being arrested while changing planes in Canada. The US government accused Huawei and Meng of violating US sanctions against Iran. US prosecutors also accused two Huawei affiliates of stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom.
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dj/se (AFP, Reuters, AP)
