It’s a testament to the American legal system that even companies like Huawei, which built an empire on stolen technology and shady anti-competitive practices, have a right to seek redress of grievances in US courts.
Song Liuping
The Chinese telecoms firm on Wednesday filed a motion in a Texas court seeking a summary judgment on the constitutionality of the Trump Administration’s decision to prohibit US companies and government agencies from using Huawei equipment due to ‘national security’ concerns. The motion is the latest development in a lawsuit that Huawei first filed back in March challenging Section 889 of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) – signed into law back in August – which barred federal agencies and their contractors from buying Huawei equipment.
That prohibition has since been expanded by executive order to cover most American companies.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which covers the headquarters of Huawei’s American subsidiary in Plano, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Huawei’s chief legal officer Song Liuping argued that the “state sanctioned” campaign wouldn’t improve national security, and accused the White House of using “the strength of an entire nation” to “come after a private company.”
“That is not normal,” he added.
Trump’s executive order invoked the Emergency Economic Powers Act, which grants the president the authority to regulate commerce in response to perceived national security threats. Trump administration officials have insisted the order is “company and country agnostic.”
The legal challenge is Huawei’s “last line of defense for justice,” Song said, adding that the security objections were a “ruse” designed to “gain support for other goals” – presumably a reference to the Trump Administration’s trade war with China.
“We believe that US politicians are using cybersecurity as an excuse to gain public support for actions that are designed to achieve other goals,” he said. “These actions will do nothing to make networks more secure.”
The decision is a ‘distraction’, he added, even as the company has so far failed to provide any evidence contradicting claims that it’s a security threat.
“They provide a false sense of security and distract attention from the real challenges we face.”
“There is no gun, no smoke – only speculation,” he said.
A hearing on Huawei’s motion won’t be held until September.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2Kb9wPK Tyler Durden