Huawei’s feisty letter to the Department of Defence
Back in December, Huawei’s new chief executive for Ireland was none too pleased with the Department of Defence.
Tony Yangxu, who took over the role in September, wrote to secretary general Jacqui McCrum, with defence minister Simon Coveney CC’d, over an article that appeared in the Defence Forces Review publication in December about 5G and Huawei’s business in Ireland.
The article written by UCD’s Dr Richard Maher examined the high-profile allegations made against Huawei over ties to the Chinese government and security implications of this - ties that the company fiercely denies.
In the letter, first reported by The Irish Times, Yangxu said he was “shocked and dismayed” at this “attack” in the article and raised qualms with Huawei not being given a right of reply.
Yangxu then listed off a series of rebuttals to the article in defence of Huawei.
Days later, Yangxu met with officials from the department, including McCrum, to discuss the matter but Coveney was not present. According to minutes from the meeting, McCrum defended the publication of the article in the DFR, stating that any views expressed in its articles are those of the author only.
