BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that proposed US legislation targeting Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese telecommunications equipment companies was due to “hysteria”, and urged US lawmakers to stop the bills.
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comments at a regular news briefing in Beijing.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced bills that would ban the sale of U.S. chips or other components to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ZTE Corp or other Chinese firms that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws.
The bills specifically cite ZTE and Huawei, both of which are viewed with suspicion in the United States because of fears that their switches and other gear could be used to spy on Americans.
The bills were introduced shortly before the Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors were investigating allegations that Huawei stole trade secrets from T-Mobile U.S. Inc and other US businesses.
The Journal said that an indictment could be coming soon on allegations that Huawei stole T-Mobile technology, called Tappy, which mimicked human fingers and was used to test smartphones.
Huawei said in a statement the company and T-Mobile settled their disputes in 2017 following a U.S. jury verdict that found “neither damage, unjust enrichment nor willful and malicious conduct by Huawei in T-Mobile’s trade secret claim”.
