The local boss of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has vowed to do his best to protect data gathered in Australia from access by Beijing.

Huawei chairman John Lord fronted the National Press Club today to launch a spirited defence of his company's security credentials, as it pushes to be allowed to participate in Australian projects while Federal Parliament continues its debate on foreign interference legislation.

Federal politicians and intelligence agencies have raised concerns about Huawei's technology giving China a backdoor into Australia's telecommunications infrastructure, and are urging the Government to block the company from having any role in the development of the 5G mobile network.

Questioned about Chinese laws requiring companies to comply with security demands, Mr Lord denied Huawei would funnel sensitive data back to Beijing.

"There's no reason for us to pass lots of data back to China," he argued.

"Huawei is well aware of its responsibilities in China, it's more than well aware of its responsibilities in every country.

"And it's very well aware that every individual country respects and wants its own security."

The Australian Huawei chairman said company operations here would secure "any information coming through us and any equipment we put into their national infrastructure".

Earlier this month Australia stepped in to muscle out Huawei from the construction of a high-speed, undersea internet cable between Sydney and the Solomon Islands, using cash from the foreign aid budget.

The company was blocked from the construction of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN).

"We were told that we no longer would be allowed to bid for NBN contracts, and it was based on 'not that we'd done anything wrong'," Mr Lord said.

"It was just based on that we were a Chinese company, and they couldn't guarantee our equipment at that time."