Updated February 19, 2019 14:45:23

Huawei's founder has told British media that there is "no way the US can crush" his company, which he said was simply more advanced than its competitors.

Huawei has been accused of working at the behest of the Chinese Government, and the US has said their equipment could be used for espionage.

The Chinese company has repeatedly denied the claims.

In an interview with the BBC, Ren Zhengfei said the criticism of his company from officials in the United States had actually been to Huawei's benefit.

"There's no way the US can crush us," Mr Ren told the BBC.

"The world needs Huawei because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we could just scale things down a bit.

"And because the US keeps targeting us, and finding faults with us, it has forced us to improve our products and services."

The dramatic arrest in Canada of Huawei's chief financial officer for possible extradition to the US shocked many. But what exactly is Huawei and why does it seem like it's continually being targeted by foreign governments?

Huawei is the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, and has faced intense scrutiny in the West, with the US calling for its allies not to use the company's technology.

China has in turn accused the US of attempting to undermine Huawei's success for political reasons, including in the area of next generation 5G network technology.

The US, Australia and New Zealand last year blocked Huawei from participating in their respective 5G networks, with Canada and several European nations currently weighing up their options.

But the UK's intelligence agencies have said that it was possible to limit the risks involved in using Huawei's technology to build its network.

Photo: China accuses the US of attempting to undermine Huawei's success. (AP: Andy Wong)

Mr Ren did not seem concerned by the risk of other countries in the West also choosing to freeze Huawei out of their networks.

"If the lights go out in the West, the East will still shine, and if the North goes dark there is still the South," he said.

"America doesn't represent the world."

Commenting on the spying concerns, the Huawei founder reiterated that the company would "never undertake" any spying activities.

Daughter's arrest 'politically motivated'

Photo: Mr Ren's daughter, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in December. (The Canadian Press via AP: Darryl Dyck)

Mr Ren also hit out at the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's Chief Financial Officer, in Canada at the request of the United States.

Ms Meng was arrested on December 1 and charged with bank and wire fraud aimed at violating American sanctions against Iran.

"Firstly, I object to what the US has done. This kind of politically motivated act is not acceptable," Mr Ren said.

"The US like to sanction others whenever there's an issue, they'll use such methods — we object to this."

But the Huawei founder said his daughter's situation would not affect the company's activities, and suggested this may have been the intention behind her arrest.

"There's no impact on Huawei's business due to Meng Wanzhou's loss of freedom, in fact we're growing even faster," he said.

"They may have thought if they've arrested her Huawei would fall, but we didn't fall, we are still moving forward."

ABC/Reuters

Topics: science-and-technology, telecommunications, world-politics, law-crime-and-justice, defence-and-national-security, china, united-states, australia

First posted February 19, 2019 13:48:16