Stefan Mileschin

Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei, whose appearances are rarer than those of the Giant Panda, stepped into the limelight briefly yesterday to defend his company from spying allegations.

Zhengfei is accused, by the Americans, of having links to the Chinese military, on the safe grounds that he once belonged to the army 26 years ago before he became stonkingly rich doing something else.

Still the fact that he hardly ever makes an appearance before the media does not do much for US claims that his company is about as transparent as a black hole.

The US has been complaining that the Chinese are regularly raiding their corporate and government sites, but Zhengfei that his company isn't involved with cybersecurity threats directed at the U.S.

Speaking in New Zealand, where Huawei had just won a contract to build a 4G LTE network, Zhengfei was clearly feeling particularly transparent and allowed himself to be interviewed by Kiwi media.

In addressing the media publicly, Ren told Reuters that Huawei has no connection to US cybersecurity issues "in the past, current and future."

He pointed out that Huawei doesn't have any major equipment work with the US government or with the major carriers, so how he could be accused of facilitating spying on them is anyone's guess.

As for Zhengfei's secrecy, apparently he does not think he is. Apparently he is very chatty on the corporate website and didn't see why anyone was so keen to shove a mike under his nose and ask him how he relaxed. We guess he can't understand why he pays all these PR people and the US media still wants to interview him before they cut and paste the press release.

http://news.techeye.net/security/sec...efends-himself