Huawei employees reportedly worked with China's military on multiple research projects, strengthening concerns over state ties

June 26, 2019

Huawei employees reportedly worked with China's military on multiple research projects, strengthening concerns over state ties

FILE PHOTO: A Huawei company logo is seen at a shopping mall in Shanghai, China June 3, 2019. Picture taken June 3, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Huawei Technologies Co employees worked on at least 10 research projects with Chinese armed forces personnel over the past decade, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Huawei workers teamed up with members of various organs of China's People's Liberation Army in projects spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications.
"Huawei is not aware of its employees publishing research papers in their individual capacity," Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly told Reuters.
Concerns have been raised over the Huawei's suspected ties to the Chinese government as the company works on supplying technology for 5G services overseas. The US has said that Huawei technology could be used as a "back door" for the Chinese government to spy, an allegation the company has repeatedly denied.

Huawei Technologies Co employees worked on at least 10 research projects with Chinese armed forces personnel over the past decade, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, collaborations the Chinese company said it was not aware of.

Huawei workers teamed up with members of various organs of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in projects spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications, Bloomberg said.

"Huawei is not aware of its employees publishing research papers in their individual capacity," Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly told Reuters, adding that the company does not have any research and development collaboration or partnerships with PLA-affiliated institutions.

"Huawei only develops and produces communications products that conform to civil standards worldwide, and does not customise R&D products for the military."

Huawei has come under mounting scrutiny for over a year, led by U.S. allegations that "back doors" in its routers, switches and other gear could allow China to spy on U.S. communications.

The company has denied its products pose a security threat.

The U.S. government last month effectively banned its agencies from buying Huawei telecommunications equipment and put severe restrictions on U.S. companies doing business with Huawei.

The research projects are part of a few publicly disclosed studies, Bloomberg said, adding it culled the papers from published periodicals and online research databases used mainly by Chinese academics and industry specialists.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Sijia Jiang in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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