But it’s all above board, the dynamic duo insist
China’s Huawei, the world’s second-largest telecoms equipment maker at the centre of a US spying row, bankrolled Britain’s coalition government to the tune of £18,600 latest data from the UK Electoral commission reveals.
Prime minister David Cameron received £8,600 in August this year for delegates to attend a Tory conference while a month earlier his coalition partner and Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg pocketed £10,000 as a donation to sponsor a reception at its Brighton conference.
The gifts came after Huawei’s offer to install mobile coverage on London’s tube system for free was rejected amid suspicions about the firm’s motives, a suspicion that has echoes on the other side of the Atlantic where the company has simlarly been shut out of a number of deals amid claims it presents a security threat.
Last month US counter intelligence officials called China the world’s biggest perpetrator of economic espionage, naming both Huawei and mobile manufacturer ZTE as potential threats.
Shenzhen-based Huawei hit back only last week with the nation’s commerce minister Chen Deming accusing the US of reverting to a “cold war mentality” in an effort to stem Chinese sales there.
Huawei overtook its main rival, Ericsson of Sweden, in the first half of this year with more than $16 billion of sales and recently announced an expansion of its UK activities which include a research facility in Ipswich and a ‘cyber-security evaluation’ centre in Banbury promising to create 700 jobs, a decision that was applauded by the British prime minister.
It is also a supplier of equipment to 45 of the world’s top 50 mobile network operators, including BT and Vodafone.
Huawei is additionally reported to be “working closely” with Britain’s spy centre GCHQ to prove that its kit, built into the networks on which the Cheltenham spy centre depends, is not vulnerable to hackers and does not come with built-in ‘back doors’ through which Britain’s state and commercial secrets can be spirited away.
However news that the UK’s coalition leaders are accepting donations from the Chinese telecoms giant is already creating unease, with Labour opposition MPs accusing the ruling coalition of having a too cosy a relationship with Huawei.
Meanwhile Britain’s Conservative Party – which has a slender majority – has dismissed the furore surrounding Huawei’s donations, insisting they were “fully and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission”.
Elsewhere whispers continue to focus on Huawei’s low-profile CEO Ren Zhengfei who was an electrical engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army before establishing the company as a seller of Hong Kong-made phone systems to small-town Chinese customers. The manufacturer, which remains private rather than stock market-listed, hotly denies any remaining connection with the PLA, declaring itself to be wholly owned by its Chinese employees.
FOOTNOTE: Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Britain’s former defence and foreign secretary, is leading a parliamentary review into Huawei’s UK activities “in regard to our critical national infrastructure and whether that should give rise for concern”.
The chairman of the intelligence and security committee has already privately heard evidence from the nation’s spying agencies and will send a report to the Prime Minister Cameron before Xmas.
In particular, Sir Malcolm will be probing Huawei’s long standing relationship with BT which it has supplied with telecoms equipment since 2005.
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