(ECNS)--China firmly opposes the deliberate smear and suppression of Huawei and other Chinese companies by the United States, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, said on Tuesday in responses to U.S. announcement of further restrictions on the company.
The remarks of FM spokesperson Zhao Lijian ran as follows.
Bloomberg: Following the restrictive measures announced in May, the U.S. Commerce Department declared further restrictions on Huawei. These were aimed at cutting Huawei's access to commercially available chips. These changes add 38 Huawei affiliates in 21 countries to an economic blacklist. What is China's comment?
Zhao Lijian: China firmly opposes the deliberate smearing and suppression of Chinese enterprises including Huawei by the U.S. side. For some time now, the U.S. has been abusing national security concept and state power to impose all sorts of restrictive measures on Chinese companies like Huawei without producing any solid evidence. This is stark bullying.
What the U.S. has done shows clearly that the market economy and fair competition principle it claims to champion is nothing but a fig leaf. Such practice violates rules of international trade, disrupts global industrial, supply and value chains, and will inevitably damage America's national interests and image.
I'd like to stress that the more hysterically the U.S. tries to keep Huawei and other Chinese companies down, the more it proves they are doing great and the U.S. is bringing hypocrisy and bullying to a whole new level. Many successful businesses of other countries have suffered the same treatment in the past. The shameful behavior of the U.S. has been and will continue to be rejected by countries in the world.
The U.S. claims that Huawei threatens U.S. national security, which is totally baseless. Let's take a look at the facts. Over the past 30 years, Huawei has developed over 1,500 networks in more than 170 countries and regions, and served 228 Fortune 500 companies and more than three billion people all over the world. Not a single cybersecurity incident like those revealed by Edward Snowden or WikiLeaks has there been. Not a single tapping or surveillance operation like PRISM, Equation Group or ECHELON has there been. And not a single country has produced evidence of any backdoors in Huawei products.
The U.S. is really the top empire of hackers in this world. American companies Cisco and Apple admitted years ago that there are security loopholes and backdoors in their equipment. U.S. intelligence has long been running indiscriminate, illegal surveillance programs on foreign governments, businesses and individuals including those of its allies. Even American citizens don't have any secrets to speak of. These are open facts.
We urge the U.S. to immediately correct its mistakes and stop smearing China and suppressing Chinese companies. The Chinese government will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard Chinese companies' legitimate rights and interests.
