Dr. Song Liuping’s Statement at the Huawei Press Conference on December 5, 2019
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, and thank you for joining us.
This morning, Huawei has filed a petition to overturn an unlawful order by the FCC in the US.
Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer Dr. Song Liuping
On November 22nd, the FCC approved an order to label Huawei as a national security threat.
This move will ban US carriers from using money from the Universal Service Fund to buy Huawei equipment.
Many people and small businesses in rural America do not have mobile network access. This decision will harm their interests.
The FCC claims that Huawei is a security threat. But the FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has not provided any evidence.
This is a common trend in Washington these days.
"Huawei is a Chinese company." That's his only excuse.
He has tried to spread fear about Huawei. He uses words like "backdoors" to scare people. But they offer no proof.
The other FCC commissioners use the same talking points.
This decision, just like the Entity List decision in May, is based on politics, not security.
These politicians ignore an important fact: Huawei has been working with rural US carriers for many years, and our customers trust our equipment.
They are experts in the security of their own networks, and they like working with us.
Carriers across rural America, in small towns in Montana, Kentucky, and farms in Wyoming… they choose to work with Huawei because they respect the quality and integrity of our equipment.
They also respect our services, because other equipment vendors don't care about their needs.
These carriers are often ignored by big vendors, because there's not "enough money" in rural communities.
The government should not shut down joint efforts to connect rural communities in the US.
In March 2018, the FCC began promoting the ban on Huawei. Many rural carriers objected.
So did the US-based Rural Wireless Association.
Huawei also submitted 21 rounds of detailed comments, explaining how the order will harm people and businesses in remote areas.
The FCC ignored all of them.
Empty claims about national security are dangerous.
Politicians in the US say they are very concerned about cyber security. And we share these concerns.
The fact is: Banning a company like Huawei, just because we started in China… this does not solve any cyber security challenges.
If the FCC is truly worried about the security of the telecom supply chain, then they should understand this: Equipment made in China by any vendor should also have the same risks.
So not only Huawei and ZTE, but also Nokia and Ericsson, who also manufacture in China.
Replacing one set of equipment made in China for another set that is also made in China… … Politicians and security consultants are smart people. They should know better.
The US government has never presented real evidence to show that Huawei is a national security threat.
That's because this evidence does not exist.
When pushed for facts, they respond that "disclosing evidence might also undermine US national security."
This is complete nonsense.
Just last month, Bill Gates said that "the rule that everything that comes from China is bad… that is one crazy approach."
We could not agree more, and we are more than willing to work together with the United States government to prove the security of our products and services.
When passing this decision, the FCC did not offer Huawei due process, or verify the facts. But they very loudly and very publicly labelled our company as a national security threat.
The FCC's order violates the Constitution, and we have no choice but to seek legal remedy.
