Huawei has repeatedly been accused of being a proxy for the Chinese government, a claim it denies. (Getty Images via BBC)

Huawei Workers Collaborated with China Military on Research Projects

Several Huawei Technologies Co. workers are reported to have collaborated with China military personnel on at least 10 research projects over the past decade.

According to Bloomberg on Thursday (6/27), the project collaborations between Huawei workers and personnel of various organs of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications. These include a joint effort to extract and classify emotions in online video comments with the investigative branch of the military’s supreme body as well as to collect and analyze satellite images and geographical coordinates with the National University of Defense Technology, which is under the direct leadership of China’s Central Military Commission.

The research projects are just a few of publicly disclosed studies that show how workers of China’s largest technology company teamed up with the PLA on researches that potentially applied into the military and security use, Bloomberg said, adding it culled the papers from online research database used mainly by Chinese academics and industry specialists.

This indicates that Huawei has closer ties to the country’s military, which is allegedly pose a security threat, particularly to the United States. Last month, Trump’s administration effectively banned its agencies from buying Huawei telecommunications products and severely restricted the US companies to do business with the company.

Despite the spotlight on the collaboration, Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly told that the company isn’t aware of its workers publishing research papers in their individual capacity.

He also emphasized that Huawei only develops and produces communication products with civilian standards worldwide and doesn’t customize research and development products for the military.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-27/huawei-personnel-worked-with-china-military-on-research-projects