China slams US government for ‘bullying’ private firm Huawei

China has denounced the United States for using state power against Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

“The US’s use of state power to arbitrarily exert pressure on a private Chinese company like Huawei is typical economic bullying,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday at a meeting in Kyrgyzstan of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security group led by Beijing and Moscow.

US President Donald Trump put Huawei’s name on a trade blacklist last week, the latest in a campaign of pressure against the company.

The move effectively banned US companies from supplying the telecom giant and its affiliates with critical components over activities that Washington claimed ran counter to the US “national security” interests.

Following in Washington’s footsteps, Japan’s Panasonic announced on Thursday that it was cutting back business with Huawei. Mobile carriers in Japan and Britain also said a day earlier that they would put off the release of Huawei smartphones.

Wang’s comments came after the US government reportedly urged South Korea not to use Huawei’s products.

Quoting a US State Department official, the South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo said local telco LG Uplus Corp, which uses Huawei’s equipment, should “not be allowed to serve in sensitive areas in South Korea,” and that Huawei needed to be eventually driven out of the country, if not immediately.

‘Presumptuous, egocentric American approach’

The top Chinese diplomat also accused the US administration of seeking to impede his country’s legitimate right to develop and progress.

“This extremely presumptuous and egocentric American approach is not able to gain the approval and support of the international community,” he added.

The world’s two largest economies have yet to set a date to resume trade talks after they re-engaged in a tariff battle earlier this month, with the US president raising punitive duties on $200 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing hiking its own tariffs on $60 billion in American products.