Huawei, the embattled Chinese telecom equipment giant amidst a China-U.S. trade war, has filed a “motion for summary judgement” in Texas today asking the court to declare the 2019 National Defense Authorisation Act unconstitutional (NDAA) unconstitutional, taking a further step to accelerate the company’s legal process against the U.S. government.
Huawei first filed the lawsuit challenging part of the NDAA in March.
In the complaint, Huawei said the NDAA was unconstitutional because it singled out Huawei by name and punished the company without trial.
The NDAA bill, which was passed by the US Congress last August, bans US government agencies from buying or using certain telecommunications and surveillance products manufactured by Chinese tech companies, including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua.
The Shenzhen-based company said a hearing on the motion was set for September 19.
Huawei said the US government should stop its “state-sanctioned campaign” against itself because it would not make networks more secure.
“They provide a false sense of security, and distract attention from the real challenges we face,” said Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer，at a press conference on Wednesday.
Song said the US government had failed to provide any evidence to their claim that Huawei was a security threat and some US politicians “are using the strength of an entire nation to come after a private company.” The purge of Huawei was “not normal” and unprecedented, he added.
The US government’s move of blacklisting Huawei two weeks ago, which effectively bans US suppliers from doing business with Huawei without government approvals, “set a dangerous precedent”, Song added.
“Today it’s telecoms and Huawei. Tomorrow it could be your industry, your company, your consumers,” he said.