A draft report created by the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has named both Huawei and ZTE as potential security threats and recommends that both companies be blocked from the U.S. market. The report has been crafted after the Committee spent 11 months investigating the two companies. Reuters says that in the report, the Committee claims that neither Huawei nor ZTE complied with requests for certain documents, including ones related to their relationships and interactions with the Chinese government. It's also said that the group received "credible accusations" claiming that Huawei could be guilty of bribery, corruption and copyright infringement. Huawei and ZTE are said to be long-term security risks due to the equipment and services that they offer, and the report says that they pose a threat because they "cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence."

Both Huawei and ZTE have denied the allegations in this report. Huawei spokesperson William Plummer said that claims like these "ignore technical and commercial realities, recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation, do nothing to protect national security, and should be exposed as dangerous political distractions from legitimate public-private initiatives to address what are global and industry-wide cyber challenges." ZTE has said that it "profoundly disagrees" with the report.

Obviously the claims made in this report are pretty serious. Committee chairman Mike Rogers told 60 Minutes that companies thinking about doing business with Huawei ought to "find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property; if you care about your consumers' privacy and you care about the national security of the United States of America." Both companies have been releasing handsets in the U.S. for a while, but they've been looking to expand their presence here. Huawei is also said to be considering an initial public offering. The full draft report is expected to be released later today.

Via Reuters