China defends Huawei after latest spy allegations linked to People Power leader Bobi Wine
Zheng Zhu Qiang, the Chinese Ambassador to Uganda has refuted allegations against Huawei, a China telecom giant that it’s used by Uganda government to spy on its opponents.
In a statement issued by the Qiang earlier at the China Embassy in Kampala, he said that the story is ‘a total fabrication’ intended to black paint Huawei’s reputation.
“None of the information in the article is true. In the article, there is detailed information and all the information is baseless. Huawei is well known and one of the world’s biggest telecom companies. Huawei originates from China and we believe in Huawei and not in the article,” Qiang said.
Qiang also said that the claim that indicated Mr Chu Maoming, the former diplomat to Uganda arranging a trip for Ugandan police officers to China and played a key role in securing a government deal for Huawei to install CCTV Cameras in Uganda as false news.
In this article, it was reported that Mr Maoming arranged a trip to China for Ugandan police officers to attend IT training on how to spy on opposition politician, Robert Kyagulanyi common name Bobi Wine the Kyadondo East legislator and the People Power Movement leader in Uganda.
And other opposition leaders by tapping into their phone conversations such that they can disorganise their arranged political activities.
Qiang says Mr Maoming had taken his annual leave in this alleged period of China trip.
But according to him, Maoming did not travel to China in 2017, he cancelled the trip and instead spent his entire leave time in Kampala.
“We know he arranged for leave but he abandoned it and spent the whole year here. That means the whole story is groundless. That is why we believe the Wall Street Journal story about Huawei and the Chinese government is baseless and is fake news,” Qiang said.
However, he failed to explain why Mr Maoming cancelled his official leave to China.
Relatedly, Mr Qiang said the investigations about Huawei is part of a global campaign to frustrate its business globally, including other China technologies that seem to be overtaking the world’s technology business.
Qiang says it’s no longer a secret that Huawei has encountered resistance from ‘some big power’ and that the same is being pushed to Africa, particularly Uganda where China products are dominating.
“Recently, Huawei has been targeted by some big power accusing Huawei of spying or being a security threat to some ‘big power’ and that big power extended that other countries not to use its products. So this article is a new attempt to attack Huawei and to demonise Huawei’s reputation,” Qiang said.
The swift turn of the event follows an investigative report published on Tuesday 13 Aug by a US-based news journal indicating that African governments have been helped by Huawei technologies to spy on their home opponents’ leaders by tapping into their phone conversations.
In the report, it’s indicated that the Uganda government intercept encrypted messages while in Zambia, police have managed to locate bloggers by the help rendered by Huawei technologies.
It’s also indicated that in Uganda, Huawei engineers used Israel made spyware to access the Kyadondo East legislator’s WhatsApp text messages to thwart his arrangements that include public rallies, his and supporters’ arrests in the country.
While in Zambia, it’s reported that the government managed to access the phones and Facebook accounts of Zambian opposition bloggers behind a pro-opposition news site against President Edgar Lungu, by the help of Huawei technicians.
