• Huawei opens the doors of the Shenzhen office to the international press

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March 07, 2019The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei goes on the counter-attack and sues the United States for banning the use of its products and services by federal agencies. The announcement came from the president of the group, Guo Ping, from the headquarters of the Chinese giant in Shenzhen, who also accused the US of hacking the company's servers and stealing emails. For Huawei, part of the law wanted by President Donald Trump to ban Chinese company technology is "unconstitutional" and "the United States Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support restrictions on Huawei products," in the words of executive. "This prohibition is not only against the law, but prevents Huawei from operating in fair competition, ultimately damaging US consumers," Guo continued. "We look forward to hearing the verdict, which we believe will benefit both Huawei and the American people."

23 charges
In the US, the group must respond to 23 counts of indictment formalized at the end of last January, ranging from the theft of technology to the violation of sanctions against Iran. The latter is the chief indictment to which the group's financial director, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Vancouver on 1 December last year, must respond, at the request of the United States, requesting his extradition. Until now, the Shenzhen group had declared that they trusted the judges and denied that Meng could have committed wrongdoing. Huawei has always denied espionage accusations from Washington, denying that it has ever passed sensitive information to the Chinese government or having received requests to do so. The Beijing government has accused the US of wanting to block Huawei and have "strong political motivations" to act against the group.

Hearing for extradition financial director postponed to May
Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, father of Meng, also took to the field to defend the company. In more interviews he said he had never given sensitive information to the Chinese government. The announcement in Shenzhen follows Huawei's financial director in Canada in just a few hours. In the courtroom, Meng's lawyer, Richard Peck, expressed "political motivation" concerns behind their client's extradition request, citing December statements on the case of US president Donald Trump.

The hearing was adjourned to May 8 next: the final decision on the extradition of the Huawei executive to the United States will be taken by the Canadian Justice Minister. The Meng case has contributed to a deterioration in the relations between Ottawa and Beijing: in recent days, China has detailed allegations of espionage against two Canadian citizens arrested a few days after the arrest of Meng in Canada, the former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, although the Chinese government has always denied a direct connection between these two cases and the story of Huawei's number two.