The US Department of Defense says that using Huawei and ZTE phones could be a security risk. The US Pentagon is ordering retail outlets on the US military bases to stop selling these phones. The personnel can still buy these phones from other stores for personal use but they might be soon be banned in other places as well followed by this ban.
A Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, “Huawei and ZTE devices may pose an unacceptable risk to the department’s personnel, information, and mission, in light of this information, it was not prudent for the department’s exchanges to continue selling them.”
Huawei responded to the news in a statement, “Huawei’s products are sold in 170 countries worldwide and meet the highest standards of security, privacy, and engineering in every country we operate globally including the US. We remain committed to openness and transparency in everything we do and want to be clear that no government has ever asked us to compromise the security or integrity of any of our networks or devices.”
Huawei claims that is an employee-owned company and will continue to expand globally even if it is not sold in the US market. The US officials claim that China could order the companies to build backdoors for spying in the devices. Both Huawei and ZTE have denied that claim.
The US government has been suspicious of the Chinese tech companies but these two are at the top. Six major US intelligence heads warned that American citizens should not use ZTE, Huawei services and products in a recent Senate testimony. A bill has been passed to ban US government agencies from using these devices.
Forget US. They can sell it in rest of the world.