Dr Mahathir says Huawei has not been found to have done any wrongdoing in Malaysia. — Bernama pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — China's major telecommunications equipment giant Huawei has not been found to have done any wrongdoing in Malaysia, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said.

Dr Mahathir also said Malaysia would not make decisions regarding Huawei's involvement simply by following the lead of other countries' decisions regarding the company.

“We have not caught them doing anything wrong in Malaysia. What Germany wants to do is for Germany to decide, what Canada wants to do also is for them to decide.

“But Malaysia does not just follow what other people are doing. We have to study and find out whether there is a basis for the action they took against this company,” he said during a dialogue session at Oxford Union in UK yesterday (UK time).

Dr Mahathir was asked if Malaysia had strategic concerns over Huawei being involved in the future over the building of 5G communications towers in Malaysia, similar to other countries especially in the West.

The question directed to Dr Mahathir had also highlighted that many Western governments such as Germany and Poland were concerned about Huawei's involvement in their countries.

Earlier this week, the German government was reported to be considering restricting and blocking Huawei from access to the country's next-generation mobile networks.

US officials have reportedly warned that Huawei's network equipment could have “back doors” that would led to the risk of exposure to cyber espionage and that the company was allegedly at the beck of call of China, but Huawei has also reportedly said these concerns are unfounded.