Declarations of Outrage

"We have to suspect that the only purpose of such a report is to impede competition and obstruct Chinese [telecom] companies from entering the U.S. market."
Huawei Technologies Co.Ltd. spokesperson 

Lashing out against the unfairness of it all.  That an eleven-month investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has come to the conclusion that Chinese telecommunications operators have a dual purpose; one legitimately commercial, the other deviously contrived to gain knowledge through espionage to enable them to transfer American data useful to the Chinese agenda, industrial and political.

The feigned outrage at the very suggestion that Chinese corporations might be engaging in industrial or political shenanigans to benefit the mother country seems credible enough.  Or it would seem that way, were the source any country other than China.  As it is, Huawei has a partner in brazening it out - another, smaller China-based telecom company, ZTA Corp.

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is a bipartisan one, with both parties satisfied that they have reached a reasonable conclusion.  That it serves the security purposes of the country to warn U.S. telecommunications operators to take a step back from business with China's elite network equipment manufacturers.  They are more than satisfied that they have uncovered a potential security threat.

Chairman of the committee, Mike Rogers, in releasing the report that came out of their almost-year-long investigation, stated that they had direct knowledge that companies that had used Huawei equipment reported back "numerous allegations" of behaviour consonant with secretive channelling of information to Chinese authorities.  Routers sending large data packs to China, during the night.

Long-term security risks associated with the equipment produced by the companies and their services loomed large.  The unclassified report held no hard, incontrovertible evidence to support the anecdotal evidence as more than theories and expectations, but there is no smoke without fire.  The companies themselves were charged with a lack of co-operation with the committee's fact finding mission.

And the end result is that it was recommended that the Committee on Foreign Investment tasked with evaluating national security risks related to foreign investments should undertake to stop any deals involving Huawei, the world's second-biggest manufacturer of routers, switches and other telecommunications equipment, as well as fifth-ranking ZTE.

ZTE declared itself "profoundly" in disagreement with any allegations that it could be conceived of as directed or controlled by the government of China.  An outrageous suggestion, really.