Huawei is suing critics in France who said it spies for China

• Huawei is suing three people in France for saying the company is beholden to the Chinese state.
  
• The Chinese telecoms giant lodged the suit in March against a researcher, a broadcast journalist, and a telecommunications expert.
• Huawei has spent this year fighting allegations from the US that it spies for China.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Huawei is suing three people in France for defamation after they said the company was a conduit for the Chinese government to spy.

Huawei has been adamantly fighting against the narrative that it is a puppet of the Chinese state used to spy on other countries' communications since the early 2010s. The idea that Huawei spies for China has been widely spread by the US government, but the US has never published smoking-gun evidence.

The US placed Huawei on a trade blacklist as a potential national security threat in May of this year, and has lobbied international allies not to allow the Chinese firm to provide equipment for their next-generation 5G mobile networks.

The Chinese telecoms giant tweeted a statement confirming the lawsuit, which was filed in March, after it was reported in French newsletter La Lettre A.

Bloomberg reports the individuals being sued are a researcher, a broadcast journalist, and a telecommunications expert.

According to Huawei's statement it takes issue with three claims made by the people it is suing - who remain unnamed.

• That Huawei is controlled by the Chinese state.
• That Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei is a former member of Chinese counter-intelligence (Ren was formerly an engineer in the People's Liberation Army).
• That Huawei is using its position as a major telecoms supplier to spy on the West.

Huawei was not immediately available for comment on the suit when contacted by Business Insider.

As yet, there is no public proof that Huawei spies for its home nation.

US intelligence has reportedly claimed it has evidence that Huawei received funding from the Chinese government, according to a report from The Times in April. In 2018, a number of US spy chiefs warned that American citizens shouldn't use phones made by Huawei and other Chinese makers.

But Microsoft president Brad Smith criticized the Trump administration in September for treating Huawei unfairly and for not providing proof of its spying claims.

The UK's cyberintelligence arm warned this year that Huawei's telecommunications equipment contains security flaws, but has carefully avoided accusing the firm of spying.

Although Huawei has won some reprieve from the US government - with businesses including Microsoft being granted special license to do business with the Chinese tech giant - it still faces formidable opposition from the Trump administration.

Arguably losing Europe is the bigger worry for Huawei, given Europe is the larger market for both its smartphones and communications equipment.

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