Huawei denies claims of wrongdoing in North Korea and Czech Republic and downplays EU cybersecurity concerns
- Chinese telecoms giant has ‘never been engaged in intelligence activities in the Czech Republic’ and does not operate in North Korea, official says
- Company calls cybersecurity a ‘permanent challenge’ in paper
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei on Tuesday denied media reports that suggested it had engaged in potentially unlawful activities in North Korea and the Czech Republic, while playing down European policymakers’ general cybersecurity worries.
“We have never been engaged in any intelligence activities in the Czech Republic, and we do not operate in the DPRK,” Jakub Hera Adamowicz, Huawei’s European Union media manager, said, referring to North Korea’s official name at a press conference in Brussels.
Czech public radio on Monday alleged that a unit of Huawei in the Central European country had “secretly collected personal data of customers, officials and business partners”.
It said the data was stored in a system that could be accessed by Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen in southeastern China’s Guangdong province.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that Huawei, working with a Chinese state-owned company, had “secretly helped” Pyongyang build and maintain North Korea’s commercial wireless network.
