Huawei filed a summary motion today as part of the process to challenge the constitutionality of Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2019 and called on the United States government to Stop the smear campaign against them.
The Chinese company decided to counterattack, two weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the use of telecommunications equipment manufactured by companies considered a threat to national security and the US Department of Commerce, the blacklist includes Huawei. Other companies follow the order like Google ending Huawei's right to use their OS platform and play store.
Song Liuping, Head of the Huawei Legal Office, told a press conference that using cybersecurity as a reason to punish Huawei is not only a direct attack to try to put the business down, but will also not make networks safer. This will only give a false sense of security and divert attention from the real challenges that companies must face.
Song also said that the politicians in the United States are using the strength of an entire nation to persecute a private company and is not normal and that the US government has not provided evidence to prove that Huawei is a security threat - only speculation. He also said that he fears what's the US next move is saying today they may be targetting telecommunications, tomorrow could be other industry, company, and consumers.
In its motion, Huawei argues that Section 889 of the 2019 NDAA points to Huawei by name and not only prohibits US government agencies from purchasing equipment and services from the company but also prohibits them from contracting or granting grants or loans to Huawei. Third parties that buy Huawei equipment or services, even if there is no impact or connection with the United States government.
Glen Nager, Huawei's lead counsel for the case, said that Section 889 of the NDAA of 2019 violates the Bill of Attainder, this is when someone is found guilty without trial in between, due process and the acquisition clauses of the Constitution of the United States, concluding that, therefore, the case merits the motion known as "a matter of law", which can be invoked when one of the parties does not present sufficient evidence to sustain its case in a reasonable manner, given that no facts have been presented in the matter, which justifies the motion for a summary trial to speed up the process.
According to the order of judicial programming, a hearing on the motion is scheduled for September 19. Despite all this, Huawei said that they still have confidence in the independence and integrity of the United States judicial system and hope that the errors of the NDAA can be corrected by the court.
