ISLAMABAD – A senior executive at Chinese technology giant, Huawei Pakistan, has said that China and its companies respect other countries and people’s security and Huawei will never steal consumers’ data as it believes in fair play.
Chief Executive Officer Huawei Pakistan Qiang Meng told media that Huawei has already confirmed that it will never install backdoors in its products or services, or illegally obtain user data.
“We value fairness,” he added.
This month, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced a new initiative to establish global standards on data security.
The Chinese government’s Global Data Security Initiative was launched to set new rules for inter-government network governance and to support an open and transparent business environment for the digital economy.
China’s initiative has eight key points including not using technology to impair other countries’ critical infrastructure or steal data, and making sure service providers don’t install backdoors in their products and illegally obtain user data.
Wang Yi said although countries varied in their national conditions and development stage of internet, they need to intensify pragmatic cooperation, build up mutual trust, and deepen cooperation with one another rather than pursuing unilateralism in the name of national security.
The initiative came amid U.S. attempts to put pressure on China’s largest technology companies and convince countries around the world to block them.
“We have not and will not ask Chinese companies to transfer data overseas to the government in breach of other countries’ laws,” Wang Yi confirmed.
Pakistan welcomed the announcement of the Global Initiative on Data Security by China on September 8. Foreign Office spokesperson Zahif Hafeez Chaudhri said against the backdrop of rapid developments in the field of information and communications technology and increasing reliance of economies on digitized information, data and information networks, an equitable and reliable Information and Communications Technology (ICT) regime was essential to ensure socio-economic progress, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “The Global Initiative on Data Security is, therefore, both relevant and timely,” he added.
“The Global Initiative,” he said, “advocates a comprehensive approach towards data security and addresses several key issues which are being extensively deliberated at the United Nations and other multilateral fora, and on which the norm-building process is currently underway.”
Qiang Meng said Huawei had encouraged governments and stakeholders to work closely with each other based on this initiative to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on issues related to technical standards and common rules, and establish unified security and technical standards.
Huawei is a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, Information Technology, smart devices, and cloud services – Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
China had announced its own initiative to set global standards on data security, countering U.S. attempts to persuade like-minded countries to “ringfence their networks” from the Chinese technology.
The Trump administration has been attacking Chinese tech firms like Huawei Technologies Co. and popular Chinese apps including ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat.
