China has accused the United States of making up rumours about electronics giant Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government, military and intelligence services, which it has repeatedly denied.
"Recently, some US politicians have continually fabricated rumours about Huawei but have never produced the clear evidence that countries have requested," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
He was asked about US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comment that Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei Technologies, was lying about the company’s connections to the Chinese government.
"Domestically in the United States there are more and more doubts about the trade war the US side has provoked with China, the market turmoil cause by the technology war and blocked industrial cooperation," said Lu.
Last week, the US put Huawei on a trade blacklist, effectively preventing US businesses from working with the company. This has created yet more animosity between the world’s two biggest economies.
US politicians continue to "fabricate lies to try to mislead the American people, and now they are trying to incite ideological opposition," said the Chinese government spokesperson.
Huawei’s Ren said that the company would never share user secrets, a statement that Pompeo said on Thursday he did not believe. This has fuelled the US push to have allied countries to also stop working with Huawei and their 5G networks due to possible security issues.
US President Donald Trump said that these issues could be resolved through a US-China trade deal, although he added that Huawei was “very dangerous.”
"Frankly, I'm actually not sure what the specific meaning of the US leader, the US side, saying this is," Lu told reporters.
Lu lashed out at the US, calling on the country to stop trying to smear foreign companies, and reiterating China’s willingness to deal with this current issue through dialogue.
