Alibaba defends Huawei, slams US for ‘extremely unfair’ treatment

An executive at the Chinese company Alibaba on Friday took aim at the Trump administration’s treatment of Chinese technology firm Huawei on Friday, attacking what he called “politically motivated” measures meant to curb the firm’s access to western markets.

Reuters reports that Joe Tsai, an executive vice chairman at the company, called the U.S. actions against Huawei “a bit unfair” at a Reuters event in Hong Kong on Friday.

{mosads}“I think what the American government and together with the Five Eyes Alliance – what they’re trying to do with Huawei — is a bit unfair, there’s definitely a political agenda behind it,” Tsai said.

The Trump administration has launched an investigation of Huawei over allegedly stealing trade secrets, and a report from The National Security Institute (NSI) at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School called the company along with another firm, ZTE, a “serious, long-term national security threat” to the U.S.

“Both companies have a history of actions ranging from troublesome to illegal — involving bribery, corruption, and sanctions evasion, as well as a record of supplying technological tools being deployed by authoritarian regimes to suppress dissent,” read the NSI report.

Huawei has denied accusations that its technology contains backdoors allowing access by Chinese intelligence, but it was reported last month that President Trump was considering an executive order banning all Huawei and ZTE products from the U.S.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying attacked those reports at the time, accusing the U.S. of making claims “without evidence.”

“It’s best to let facts speak for themselves when it comes to security problems,” she told Reuters in December.

“Some countries have, without any evidence, and making use of national security, tacitly assumed crimes to politicize, and even obstruct and restrict, normal technology exchange activities,” Chunying added.