The BBC has been criticised by its own employees for producing a promotional video and website for Huawei which claims to tell the “real story” of the company.

A video and website promoting the Chinese technology business was created by the BBC’s “StoryWorks” sponsored content team, BuzzFeed reported.

The video, titled “The Real Story of Huawei,” features founder Ren Zhengfei describing how the company grew from a small company into a global smartphone and telecoms giant.

The release of the video comes as the US government continues to enforce a trade ban on American firms selling products and services to Huawei.

Some BBC journalists have reportedly been “hopping mad” over the release of the video, The Times reported. One BBC employee reportedly told BuzzFeed that “I nearly threw up” after seeing the film.

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Former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell told The Times that “I do not think the BBC should be running advertorials, it’s not what it does. Especially at this time in view of what is happening in Hong Kong — every bone in my body says ‘hands off, don’t go near it’.”

The BBC-produced video has been viewed 500,000 times on YouTube since its release on Monday. Huawei has since removed mentions of the BBC from the video and its description on YouTube.

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC maintains clear separation between its commercial and editorial departments, and BBC News continues to report rigorously, impartially and without fear or favour on all issues, with no consideration of wider commercial relationships.”

Governments around the world have examined their use of Huawei equipment because of allegations that the company’s links to the Chinese government could mean that the hardware is vulnerable to being used for espionage. Huawei executives have repeatedly denied the allegations.

The Government will make a final decision on whether to allow Huawei equipment in 5G networks after the December 12 election.