South Korea won’t use Huawei equipment for fear of Chinese spying

It has been alleged quite a few times that Huawei’s equipment might allow the Chinese government to spy and snoop around, these allegations lead to speculation late last year that Huawei could step out of the U.S. market for good. Apparently Washington had the same concerns when South Korea allowed Huawei to develop its advanced wireless network, so Seoul has reportedly agreed to route all sensitive communications with the U.S. through networks that don’t use Huawei equipment. 

South Korea has agreed to route sensitive U.S. and South Korean communications away from networks that include equipment made by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, spurred by Washington’s concerns over the Chinese firm, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. U.S. officials in meetings with South Korean counterparts in recent months raised the risk that Huawei’s equipment could be used for spying on communications between the allies as well as compromise networks used by U.S. military and intelligence officials in South Korea, the report said. “To address these security concerns, South Korea decided to make changes to the project so that sensitive South Korean government communications won’t pass through Huawei equipment,” the Journal quoted U.S. officials briefed on the discussions as saying.