Washington continues witch hunt against its bugbear Huawei: China Daily editorial

Ever since the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer was targeted by Washington as a national security threat, the fate of Huawei in the United States seems to have been determined.

On the grounds that it is a national security threat, Washington has basically shut Huawei out of the US market, banning government agencies from buying its equipment and services, and imposing a technology embargo on it by forcing major technology giants to freeze their supplies to the Chinese company.

It tightened the screw again last month, with a US Federal Communications Commission ban that prevents carriers in rural areas from buying its equipment using federal funds.

In response, Huawei announced on Thursday that it will petition a US appeals court to overturn the ban which it deems to be "unlawful".

The company certainly knows that it has little if no chance at all of winning any legal battle against the ban in the United States.

It has previously filed lawsuits against Washington's ban, but to no avail. As Huawei's chief legal officer Song Liuping said, Washington's only excuse for the ban is that Huawei is a Chinese company.

He was just stating the plain truth. In terms of what Huawei has been experiencing in the US, protectionism is an understatement. The blatant government intervention in free market competition tramples on the very principles the US has long trumpeted, and lays bare its hegemonism in its ugliest form.

Indeed, in order to dent China's edge in technology such as Huawei's 5G dominance, Washington will not hesitate to go to the extreme, using whatever means it deems necessary including lies.

US President Donald Trump harped on the same old tune of a Huawei threat during a NATO meeting in England on Wednesday, saying "I do think it's a security risk, it's a security danger", as he tried to dissuade the US' European allies from embracing Huawei.

The US' push to strangle Huawei is nothing but a global witch hunt. It is sad that other countries seem unable or unwilling to subdue Washington's high-handedness, even after the United Kingdom government, Germany's Federal Office for Information Security and the European Commission have all failed to find any backdoor in Huawei as the US has claimed.

Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecom company, said on Wednesday it has put all deals to buy 5G network equipment on hold as it awaits a government decision over whether to bar Huawei on security grounds.

The US is trying to erect a technological iron curtain. Before toeing its line against Huawei, other countries should consider if they want that as it will hamper the world's technological advancement, and in the end jeopardize their own interests.