Huawei: US probe unlikely to affect other business

China's Huawei Technologies Co said Wednesday a US congressional committee probe into whether its access to communications infrastructure poses a security risk is unlikely to affect its business in other overseas markets.

The House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee issued a report earlier this month urging US companies to stop doing business with Huawei and ZTE Corp, the world's No.2 and No.5 telecommunications equipment vendors, over security concerns.

The move has prompted Canada and Britain to also look into similar issues, sparking concerns that it could affect Huawei's business in other markets.

"No, I don't think there will be an impact," Huawei's Senior Vice President Zhang Chunxiang told Reuters, responding to a question on whether the firm's other overseas business would be hit.

Zhang, who spoke on the sidelines of a business event in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, said both sides were still talking and that the US investigation was a sign of trade protectionism.

"They investigated for 11 months and they didn't consider all the different material supplied by Huawei and they still came to that conclusion. They investigated like they never investigated at all," he said.

After the almost year-long investigation, the committee warned in a 52-page report that China could use equipment made by both companies to spy on certain communications and threaten vital systems through computerised links.

Huawei and ZTE have denied the allegations in the report. Huawei's US spokesman, William Plummer, warned the panel's recommendations would set a "monstrous, market-distorting, trade-distorting policy precedent that could be used in other markets against American companies."