‘Spying would be equal to suicide,’ says Huawei’s chief legal officer

Huawei called on the United States to drop the “loser’s attitude” and once again rubbished U.S. allegations its gear could be used by China for spying.

“The U.S. government has a loser’s attitude. It wants to smear Huawei because it cannot compete against Huawei,” Guo Ping, rotating chairman of Huawei, said on Friday.

Huawei announced record financial results for 2018, net profit jumped 25%

“I hope the U.S. can adjust its attitude,” Guo said at a press briefing that was attended by more than 100 journalists from across the world, reports Reuters.

The company has said the spying concerns are unfounded.

“Spying would be equal to suicide,” said Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer.

“We have no intention of committing suicide.”

Huawei derived 48.4% of its business from overseas markets in 2018, versus 49.5% a year earlier.

The company’s fastest-growing region was Europe, Middle East and Africa with a growth of 24.3%, followed by the Americas with a growth of 21.3%.

Huawei has repeatedly denied allegations that it would be willing to spy on behalf of the Chinese government and has said it takes privacy and security seriously.

In its earnings report the company said that “cybersecurity and user privacy protection are at the absolute top of [its] agenda.”

The company’s rotating chairman Guo Ping admits that criticism from the US government has caused “a certain amount of trouble” for the company, but he is keen to downplay these concerns.

He likens the US to a rude dinner party guest. “We Chinese would say that they don’t mind their table manners,” Guo said, “I feel very sorry for these so-called gentlemen.”

The latest news came on Thursday when the UK rebuked it for failing to fix long-standing security flaws in its mobile network equipment and revealed new “significant technical issues”.