海角大神

Hard evidence exists that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese state, according to the former director of the CIA.

鈥淎t a minimum, Huawei would have shared with the Chinese state intimate, and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with,鈥� says General Michael Hayden in an exclusive interview the Australian Financial Review that was published on Friday.

Mr. Hayden served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 to 2009 and the National Security Agency from 1995 to 2005.

Huawei responded, calling Hayden鈥檚 comments 鈥渢ired, unsubstantiated, defamatory remarks,鈥� according to a statement that Huawei global cyber security officer John Suffolk e-mailed to Reuters.

鈥淥ur customers have the right to know what these unsubstantiated concerns are,鈥� Mr. Suffolk wrote, calling on Hayden and other critics to present hard evidence along with their grievances. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to put up, or shut up."

Huawei is one of the world鈥檚 largest telecom companies. The company is a supplier of equipment including routers and Ethernet cords, and also hosts cloud storage.

"Industrial espionage by the Chinese has probably now become the core issue in the Sino-American relationship," says Hayden. "It is not an irritant. It is not a peripheral issue." Huawei, he says, is an example of one of these industrial actors.聽

Hayden openly admits that the US "[steals] other countries' secrets," but, he says, the key difference between Chinese spying and US spying is the intent. The Chinese "steal secrets to make [their] citizens rich," he says.聽

During his interview, Hayden says the burden of proof falls on Huawei to show that the company does not work in collusion with the Chinese government.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no transparency around who appoints the board of directors or controls the ownership of the business. And there鈥檚 no independent Chinese government oversight committee that could give us continuing confidence that Huawei ... would not do what they promised not to do,鈥� Hayden says.

In 2011, the US Commerce Department blocked a bid from Huawei to build a national emergency wireless network, citing concerns about the company鈥檚 ties to the Chinese government. This prompted Huawei to publish an open letter to the US government denying security concerns, and requesting an investigation into the government鈥檚 claims.

Last year, the US House Committee on Intelligence released an investigative report that found explanations of the relationship between the telecom company and the Chinese government to be unsatisfactory.

Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei was part of the People鈥檚 Liberation Army as well as a former military engineer.

Mr. Zhengfei denied that Huawei agreed to conduct espionage on behalf of Chinese security agents. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 do this. We definitely say no to such topics,鈥� Zhengfei said in an interview with New Zealand media outlets in May. An excerpted version of the interview was published on a blog maintained by Scott Skyes, the Head of International Media Affairs for Huawei.

Huawei was also excluded from bidding for a contract with Australia鈥檚 broadband network in 2012.

In the United Kingdom, Huawei has supplied British Telecom with equipment since 2005. On Thursday, Britain鈥檚 national security advisor announced that a review will be launched of Huawai鈥檚 services in the country. The company has a cyber-security evaluation center, but recent concerns have arisen that Huawei鈥檚 equipment could be used by Beijing to spy on the United States, according to the Guardian.聽

During Hadyen's interview, the former CIA director recalls reviewing Huawei's briefing papers several years ago, when the company was trying to firmly聽establish聽itself in the United States. The briefs "said all the right things," Hayden recalls.聽

"But God did not make enough briefing slides on Huawei to convince me that having them聽involved聽in our critical communications infrastructure was going to be okay."聽