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There is well-founded international resistance to Huawei, based on fears it will open the door for Beijing to further its global spying activities

Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, claims that “no law in China requires any company to install mandatory backdoors (for spying) in its equipment,” and that “I will never do anything to harm any country in the world.” Huawei’s vice-president of corporate affairs last week echoed that claim, insisting “Huawei Canada has, and we will continue, to act to protect our employees, our customers and our investments.”

Ren Zhengfei’s daughter, Meng Wanzhou, who has been detained in Vancouver since December awaiting an extradition hearing, chose this moment to publicly open her heart, writing that she’d been left in tears by the support she’s received from Huawei employees, attesting that “this kind of connection, which is close and warm, is as beautiful as spring.”

Meng is spending her spring in a $13-million Vancouver mansion, having been granted approval to leave a lesser mansion once the big one had been renovated. Her team of high-priced lawyers has been assembling a case claiming her constitutional rights have been violated, while Beijing has retaliated by seizing Canadians in China on spurious allegations, tossing them in cells and interrogating them for up to eight hours a day.

Photo by Jason Redmond/AFP)JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images

It doesn’t take much more than a Google search to dispel the pleasant fantasy Huawei is trying to sell. Despite what Ren Zhengfei may say, there is absolutely a law in China requiring his company to do as Beijing asks. It’s called the National Intelligence law and it states that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law.” Intelligence agencies are empowered to demand such assistance. Nowhere does it say, “except for Huawei.”