The company is suing the US and named members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, saying that a US law that blocks Huawei violates the separation of powers set out over 200 years ago in the Constitution.
But behind the move is an attempt to force the US to say whether or not it has any evidence that Huawei equipment poses a security risk.
Guo Peng (pictured), the company’s chairman, said this morning in Shenzhen: “The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence. We are left with no choice but to challenge the law in court.”
The company has filed an action in Plano, Texas, where Huawei has a US office, claiming the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is unconstitutional in naming Huawei and banning it from any network that might have a contract with any arm of the US government service.
Guo said that the US “has hacked our servers” and emails but has “never provided any evidence that Huawei poses a cyber security threat”.
And the US is “trying to block us from the 5G market in other countries”, he said at a press conference at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. But “the US has never provided any evidence”.
The NDAA “prevents us from serving our US customers”, he added. It is “an abuse of the US law-making process” and “infringes upon our rights”.
Meanwhile a Canadian court last night said that the extradition hearing against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO, will start on 8 May. The US is claiming that she committed fraud by using a shadow company to export equipment to Iran, in violation of a US embargo.
Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, denies all charges.
