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Make of it what you will, given that Huawei was founded by an ex-Chinese-military engineer and has had lots of mud thrown at it from the West, but the telecoms equipment firm maintains it’s never been leaned on by any government or agency anywhere, ever.

In the foreword to a security white paper released on Friday, Huawei deputy chairman Ken Hu said the firm had never been asked to change hardware or software, provide access to its technology, or offer up people’s data. That’s certainly a poke in the eye for companies operating in the U.S., which have to abide by the CALEA backdoor rules and cooperate with surveillance programs.