Chinese telecom firm denies helping Iran squelch dissent

The Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei on Wednesday pushed back against six members of Congress who are calling for a State Department investigation into the company's activities in Iran.

The four senators and two representatives wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Dec. 22 demanding that State determine whether Huawei is ineligible for U.S. government contracts, according to a copy of the letter released this week. The State Department said Wednesday that it is "following up" on the letter and that its investigation is a "complex process" that may take time to complete.

The letter cites an October report in The Wall Street Journal that says the company’s technology is being used to track dissidents and silence dissent in Iran, in violation of a 2010 U.S. sanctions law. The article cites an anonymous source as saying Huawei won a contract by touting its experience in censorship.

Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer called the allegations completely baseless. He acknowledged that Huawei set up location-based services, including those that allow police to track locations of users, but said that these are standard features on networks throughout the world.

He said the company does not expect the State Department to impose any sanctions on the Chinese company and noted the firm does not have any U.S. government contracts.

Huawei said in lengthy rebuttal of the Journal article, available on its website, that it has “never been involved in and do not provide any services relating to monitoring or filtering technologies and equipment anywhere in the world,” nor is it involved in censoring news.  

Section 106 of the Iran sanctions law prohibits contracting with those that export certain sensitive technology to Iran and this includes any hardware, software or other equipment that restricts the free flow of information in Iran or that monitors, disrupts, or restricts free speech in Iran as determined by the administration.

“Unfortunately, a few Members of Congress continue to cite inaccurate media reports that include groundless allegations and errors of fact,” Huawei said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Despite proclaiming its innocence, Huawei last month decided to stop seeking new customers in Iran and to limit its activities with existing customers.

The Dec. 22 letter was sent by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Sue Myrick (R-N.C.).

In addition to seeking a Huawei investigation, the members also ask the department to look into activities by Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens in Iran and note that no companies have been identified as violating the human rights provisions of the 2010 law since its enactment.

In 2010, Huawei lost a major contract to upgrade Sprint’s mobile network after the U.S. lawmakers raised security concerns.

The kerfuffle between China’s telecommunications giant and members of Congress comes at a time of increased tension between Iran and the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

President Obama signed new Iran sanctions into law over the weekend and Iran has threatened to choke off the oil supply from the Persian Gulf in response.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will travel to China and Japan next week to drum up more pressure on Iran while the EU is reportedly close to an agreement imposing a total oil embargo on Iran.

---