The Chinese telecoms giant’s promised investment follows the arrest of CFO in Canada
The Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is to spend $2bn (£1.5bn) in an effort to alleviate British security services’ concerns about vulnerabilities in its products, capping a torrid week for the firm.
In July, a British government centre established to verify the integrity of Huawei’s technology warned that it had security concerns about the company’s technology and could only provide “limited assurance” that risks to national security had been mitigated.
On Thursday BT confirmed it was removing Huawei equipment from key areas of its 4G network over concerns about the Chinese firm’s presence in critical telecoms infrastructure.
Both Huawei and the government declined to dispute the details of reports in the Financial Times and Reuters that the firm intends to make the investment in an effort to address concerns over national security risks. It is understood that the money is to be spent over five years.
On Wednesday it emerged that Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer, had been detained in Canada and faces extradition to the US to face charges of violating sanctions. The dispute threatens to derail talks aimed at de-escalating the US-China trade war.