Troubled Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Tuesday denied allegations in the Wall Street Journal that it had stolen technology from a Portuguese inventor, accusing it of “taking advantage of the current geopolitical situation.”
Adding to the existing criminal cases against Huawei, the U.S. Department of Justice is examining the claim, the WSJ reported last week.
Huawei – considered the world leader in superfast 5G devices and the world’s number two smartphone maker – fell into a deepening trade war between Beijing and Washington in May, imposing punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in bilateral trade. .
The latest controversy involves Portuguese inventor Rui Pedro Oliveira, who claims that Huawei met him and then tore up one of his designs to create the Huawei Nvidian 360 panoramic camera.
“These allegations are false,” Huawei said in a statement.
“Over the past several months, the US government has been using its political and diplomatic influence to persuade other governments to ban Huawei’s equipment. Disrupting the normal business activities of its partners, “the Chinese company said.
It said Oliveira had given a false statement to the media in an attempt to tarnish Huawei’s reputation. “
The United States, with mixed success, is pressuring allies to reject Chinese 5G technology, particularly from giant mobile phone company Huawei.
Washington fears that Huawei will provide Beijing with a way to spy on communications between countries that use its products and services.
Huawei acknowledged meeting with Oliveira in 2014 but insisted that its EnVizion 360 camera was “independently designed and developed by Huawei’s staff with no access to Mr Oliveira’s information”.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce suspended sales of materials and services to China’s telecom Titan and effectively suspended it for a second time due to stricter rules on buying equipment from it.
However, it added that it would add 46 more companies to the list of Huawei’s affiliates and affiliates, which, if fully implemented, would be subject to sanctions – bringing the total number on the list to more than 100.
In December, Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhu on a U.S. warrant.