Huawei's chairman proposes a "No-Spy" agreement with the United States: NPR

Huawei leader Liang Hua, who appeared in 2018, said on Tuesday that Huawei is willing to sign a "no-spy deal" to assure US leaders that the company's technology is concerned with surveillance.

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Huawei leader Liang Hua, who appeared in 2018, said on Tuesday that Huawei is willing to sign a "no-spy deal" to assure US leaders that the company's technology is concerned with surveillance.

VCG via Getty Images

A top Huawei leader said Tuesday that the company is willing to sign a "no-spy deal" with the US to reassure US leaders that the company's technology can be used for monitoring.

The offer is similar to suggestions made by the Chinese technological giant to the UK and Germany, and it comes after weeks of intense pressure from the Trump administration.

"We are willing to enter into a non-spy deal with the United States," Huawei leader Liang Hua said while talking to a group of US journalists who visited the company's Shenzhen, China, headquarters with the China-United States Exchange Foundation.

Although it would be the first such public offer of an agreement to the United States, Liang stressed that the terms do not exist for such an agreement.

"The United States has not bought from us, does not buy from us and does not intend to buy from us," he said. "So, I don't know if it's possible to sign such an agreement."

Liang accused the United States of inappropriate behavior while beating a reconciling tone – a response that reflects a level of extinction now felt by Chinese tech giant.

"It is inappropriate to use political means to disrupt an industry," he said.

Huawei is one of China's most successful technology companies and has a global footprint. It is one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers, behind Samsung, but ahead of Apple in early 2019. It is also one of the leading telecom providers of mobile 5G wireless networks, the infrastructure needed for driverless cars, smart cities with smart traffic lights and smart factories.

But the company is facing a growing setback from Western countries due to concerns about the safety of its products. US executives have said Huawei's networks and phones can be used by the Chinese government and allow users to breach privacy

This culminated last month when the US Commerce Department added Huawei to its "Entity List," which beats US companies sell technology to Huawei without authority approval. The Trump administration has delayed the ban from taking full effect until later this summer.

The United States is also pushing other countries to ban Huawei from security issues. State Secretary Mike Pompeo warned Switzerland and the Netherlands on Monday about working with Chinese technology. And President Trump was expected to discuss Huawei during his visit with Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Huawei has taken a flash of media interviews to share the company's perception that it is being unfairly used as a farmer in high-stakes US-China trade negotiations. Huawei is also fighting aggressively against the United States. Last week, the company sent a lawful motion in a US court to declare its Trump administration's efforts to ban its equipment as constitutional.

Huawei has become the most visible target of the US government in the clash over China's trade. Last year tensions came to a high-pitched tone after the United States sent an arrest warrant to Huaiwe's CFO Meng Wanzhou on charges related to breaking US sanctions against Iran among other allegations. Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, is under house arrest in Canada and is fighting extradition to the US.

The ban on US technology companies doing business with Huawei is expected to drastically reduce demand for Huawei phones in the future. Most Huawei phones run on Google's Android operating systems.

Huawei has a backup plan to move forward with its own version of data chips and operating systems to reduce confidence in US technology companies, said Professor David Daokui Li of Tsinghua University.

Huawei's Liang also said that in the long run, the company will develop its own operating system similar to Android. But it will take some time.

Although there is no doubt that the US ban, if imposed, will damage Huawei in the short term, some experts in China say it can strengthen the company's hand in the long run.

"What President Trump is doing is waking up the sleeping capacity of Huawei," Li said.