Huawei would not help China spy on the U.S. with its devices, even if mandated by Chinese law to do so, founder and president Ren Zhengfei told CBS News in an interview aired Wednesday. Zhengfei denied allegations by the U.S. government that the company aids Chinese intelligence by building a backdoor in its devices.
"Absolutely not possible," Zhengfei told CBS News. "And also, we never participate in espionage and we do not allow any of our employees to do any act like that. And we absolutely never install backdoors. Even if we were required by Chinese law, we would firmly reject that."
U.S. officials still fear that Chinese telecommunications firms could be used by the country to spy on Americans in part with the help of a 2017 law that gives Chinese officials new legal justification for monitoring people for national security purposes.
Last February, several U.S. security agency representatives testified on potential security risks of Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei. FBI Director Chris Wray told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee at the time that devices from these companies could allow for "undetected espionage" and the ability for malicious actors to steal information.
"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks," Wray said.
In April, the Pentagon warned that Huawei mobile phones and modems could potentially be used to spy on American and stopped selling the devices at stores on military bases worldwide.
The U.S. government has also accused Huawei of violating sanctions on Iran, stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile and committing wire fraud, among other charges. Zhengfei's daughter and CFO of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada in December and is facing extradition to the U.S. Zhengfei told CBS News the arrest of his daughter was "politically motivated."
The Trump administration is also considering an executive order that would ban Huawei telecom equipment from being sold in the U.S., an administration told CNBC earlier this month.
See the full interview on CBS News.
-CNBC's Amanda Macias and Kate Fazzini contributed to this report.
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