The founder and CEO of Chinese networking equipment manufacturer Huawei, in his first-ever media interview, Thursday dismissed allegations that backdoors may have been built into the company’s products to facilitate Chinese espionage.
“Huawei has no connection to the cybersecurity issues the U.S. has encountered in the past, current and future,” Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei, 68, told local reporters — through an interpreter — while on a visit to New Zealand this week, according to news reports.
Since founding the company 26 years ago, Ren had previously refused to conduct media interviews. But during his visit this week to New Zealand, he agreed to meet with reporters from four of the country’s news outlets.
In response to reporters’ questions, Ren dismissed allegations that his employees might be colluding with state security services, instead likening the relationship between his company and the Chinese government to that between New Zealand companies and their government, reported Fairfax Media in New Zealand. Furthermore, he said he was confident that his employees would be free to refuse any request from a Chinese intelligence service to spy on a foreign entity.