Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei breaks silence to dismiss spy accusations

Ren Zhengfei denies claims that Huawei supports Chinese government covert intelligence gathering

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has broken his self-imposed silence to deny claims that the company he founded helps China's government to spy on targets around the world.

According to Ren, Huawei has "no regular contact" with China's government and added that he would "decline any request for sensitive information" on clients. He noted that he "never received any request from any government to provide improper information".

Ren's comments were reported by the Bloomberg newswire.

Ren, who is a member of the Chinese Communist party and served in the People's Liberation Army, further claimed that he does not see any connection between the business operations of Huawei and his political beliefs.

Trump is a great president

"I still love my country, I support the Communist party, but I will never do anything to harm any country in the world."

He also stressed the importance of collaboration between Beijing and Washington and used the occasion to praise US president Donald Trump.

"Trump is a great president. He dares to massively cut taxes, which will benefit business."

Ren also addressed the events surrounding his eldest daughter Meng Wanzhou. She was recently arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the US to answer allegations that she helped Huawei to violate US-led sanctions against Iran.

The press conference comes as Huawei faces a lock-out of 5G contracts in a number of markets. Security services in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, among others, are concerned that Huawei could gain a privileged position in sensitive 5G networks across the world that could subsequently be exploited by China's government.

The US government, in particular, has urged allies not to deploy Huawei 5G communications equipment. The heads of the FBI, CIA and NSA have also warned over using smartphones produced by Huawei.

Ren downplayed the impact of being blocked from a number of Western markets, and claimed that this would merely shift the company's focus on countries that are more welcoming.