China telecom firms address security concerns at US congressional hearing

Fresh concerns have been voiced by leaders of a US congressional panel probing two Chinese telecom giants about the firms' links to the Beijing government, even as the companies defended their integrity.

The House Intelligence Committee started hearings into "security threats" posed by China's Huawei and ZTE, as part of a probe that got under way last year, and committee chairman Mike Rogers said at the close of the hearing that he was "a little disappointed" in the responses.

He said he was hoping for more transparency, more directness in some of the answers.

He earlier said that the reach of the two firms provided a wealth of opportunities for Chinese intelligence agencies to insert malicious hardware or software implants into critical telecommunications components and systems adding that the firms could be required "to cooperate with any request by the Chinese government."

According to Representative Dutch Ruppersberger who expressed similar concerns, the firms had so far have produced "a lack of direct responses and vague answers" to inquiries from the committee.

He added, he was concerned that the Chinese companies' products were subsidised by the Beijing government and that "US consumers may have no idea about the national security implications of their purchases."