Report says Huawei will fight back against the U.S.

After having to deal with a U.S. government that calls it a national security threat, Huawei is fighting back. According to The New York Times, The Chinese telecom company is planning on filing a suit against the U.S. in the Eastern District of Texas. That is where Huawei has its American headquarters. The suit is over a section of a defense spending authorization law signed last year that blocks U.S. executive agencies (such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development) from employing telecom equipment made by Huawei and ZTE.

The report in the Times says that Huawei will ask that the court rule unconstitutional the provision of the defense spending authorization law that bans government agencies from using its gear. The company plans to show that the bill is a legislative act that singles it (and ZTE) out. The U.S. Constitution prevents such bills from becoming law. While Huawei could announce the suit this week, there is also a chance that it will decide not to file the suit.

U.S. lawmakers have called both Huawei and ZTE national security threats for several years now, worried that their equipment contains back doors that pass along information about American consumers and corporations to the communist Chinese government. Even though Huawei is supposed to be bound by a law in China that requires it to help the government gather intelligence, Huawei chairman Liang Hua recently said that such a request is unlawful and that Huawei is not legally obligated to spy on behalf of the Chinese government. ZTE also denies the same accusation.