China tells US to stop ‘unreasonable crackdown’ on Huawei

BEIJING — China calls on Washington to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei after the United States stepped up pressure on the tech giant by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran.

Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, a foreign ministry statement says. It gives no indication whether Beijing might retaliate for the charges against Huawei, China’s first global tech brand and the biggest maker of switching gear for phone and internet companies.

Huawei Technologies Ltd., which has spent a decade battling US accusations it is a front for Chinese spying, denies committing any of the violations cited in Monday’s indictment.

The foreign ministry complains Washington has “mobilized state power” to hurt Chinese companies “in an attempt to strangle fair and just operations.”

“We strongly urge the United States to stop the unreasonable crackdown on Chinese companies including Huawei,” says the statement read on state TV. It says Beijing will defend the “lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies” but gives no details.

The charges unsealed Monday by the Justice Department accused Huawei of trying to take a piece of a robot and other technology from a T-Mobile lab that was used to test smartphones. Huawei passed Apple in mid-2018 as the second-biggest global smartphone brand after Samsung.

— AP