Huawei hits out at US trade protection
 

The Chinese tech giant Huawei is claiming that the latest US clamp down on its products in the Land of the Fee is nothing to do with security and everything to do with illegal trade protection.

The US has been claiming that the Huawei is a security risk because its chairman was briefly a member of the Chinese army. It also claims that Chinese hardware has backdoors which lets the China see the secret ingredients in McDonald's special sauce and other US cultural treasures.

Huawei revealed details of its 2012 performance. According to the Wall Street Journal, it does not have to, but it did so to show transparency and allay any security concerns about its operations.

Huawei chief financial officer Cathy Meng expressed frustration about US security complaints. She said Americans pay about twice what Europeans do for third- and fourth-generation mobile phone services because of trade protection.

She said that these interfere with free competition, which will harm end users and consumers.

Outside the US, Huawei has grown rapidly in developing countries and is increasing sales in Europe. As a result, last year's profit rose 33 percent over 2011 to $2.48 billion on sales of $35.36 billion, according to Meng.

Huawei is privately held and has been releasing more financial details in recent years in an effort to ease US concerns about the outfit.

The results conference was the first of its kind for Huawei and part of its commitment to transparency, Meng said.

Huawei was founded as Ren Zhengfei in 1987. He was a former Chinese military engineer, although he does not appear to have been in the army particularly long.

Concerns have spread to Australia, which has always believed what the US tells it and Huawei was barred from bidding to work on the National Broadband Network.

Huawei issued a pledge last year not to co-operate with spying.

It pointed out that it serves 45 of the world's 50 biggest telecoms carriers and spends a fortune on R&D.

Last year, only one third of sales came from its native China market, according to Meng.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 35 percent of sales, while 17 percent of sales were in other Asia-Pacific markets and 15 percent from the Americas.

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