[ti:Huawei and ZTE Deny Claims That They Present a Security Threat to the United States] [ar:June Simms] [al:TECHNOLOGY REPORT] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:06.73]this is the TECHNOLOGY REPORT in Special English. [00:12.32]Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE [00:16.80]have pushed back against accusations that they present [00:20.47]a national security threat to the United States. [00:24.69]The United States House Intelligence Committee [00:27.84]released a report on the issue last week. [00:32.81]Committee chairman, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, [00:39.51]spoke about the year-long investigation that led to the report. [00:43.02]"The investigation concluded that the risks associated [00:46.28]with these companies providing equipment and services [00:47.89]to U.S. critical infrastructure [00:51.45]undermines the core U.S. national security interests." [00:54.45]Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democrat, [00:57.27]is a ranking member of the house committee. [00:59.88]"We already know the Chinese are aggressively [01:02.08]hacking into our nation's networks, [01:04.29]threatening our critical infrastructure, [01:07.41]and stealing millions of dollars' worth of trade secrets [01:10.02]and other sensitive information from American companies." [01:14.38]The report warned American companies against [01:17.58]doing business with Huawei and ZTE. [01:22.50]It also called on The Committee on Foreign Investment [01:26.21]in the United States to block any purchases, [01:30.77]takeovers, or mergers involving the two companies. [01:35.29]And it advised officials in the United States [01:40.35]to ban the use of equipment from these companies in their systems. [01:46.03]Both Huawei and ZTE released statements last week [01:49.89]denying the reports' claims. They said [01:54.35]the report is an attempt to prevent Chinese companies [01:57.76]from competing in the American market. [02:02.43]Chinese officials also reacted to the report. [02:06.14]An official from China's Commerce Ministry [02:10.30]called the accusations groundless and untrue. [02:13.93]He said the action by the United States [02:18.49]violated its long-held free-market principles. [02:22.25]And he said it would harm cooperation [02:25.58]and development between the two countries. [02:31.65]Marc Maiffret is chief technology officer with Beyond Trust, [02:36.32]a security and threat prevention company in the United States. [02:42.08]He says the House Committee's report may appear to be somewhat [02:45.85]of a protectionist move. But, he says, [02:50.00]China shares some responsibility in the matter. [02:53.87]"The complaints coming from them about the recent report, [02:57.99]while maybe valid in some regards, come from a country [03:02.30]that continues to have a large number of cyber-attacks, [03:06.37]a large number of targeted attacks for intellectual property. [03:10.98]And I think in general it's very hard to kind of make accusations [03:14.34]against the U.S. or anybody when as a country yourself [03:20.60]you have so many things that are happening from a cyber-security perspective." [03:26.96]William Plummer is Huawei's United States' vice president of external relations. [03:32.18]He said during an interview with the television program "60 Minutes" [03:37.09]that "Huawei is a business in the business of doing business." [03:43.51]He said seventy percent of the company's business comes from outside China. [03:48.02]And he said Huawei is not going to "jeopardize [03:51.63]its commercial success for any government." [03:56.49]And that the VOA Special English Technology Report, [03:56.57]I'm June Simms.