China on Friday denounced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for fabricating rumours after he said that the chief executive of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd lied about his company’s ties to the Beijing government.

The U.S. placed Huawei on a trade blacklist recently, effectively banning U.S. firms from doing business with the world’s largest telecom network gear maker and escalating a trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies.

Huawei has repeatedly denied it is controlled by the Chinese government, military or intelligence services.

Pompeo, speaking on Thursday, also dismissed Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei’s assertions that his company would never share user secrets, and said that he believed more American companies would cut ties with the tech giant.

“Recently, some U.S. politicians have continually fabricated rumours about Huawei, but have never produced the clear evidence that countries have requested,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, when asked about Pompeo’s remarks.

The U.S. has been rallying its allies to persuade them not to use Huawei for their 5G networks, citing security concerns.

Lu said that the U.S. government was provoking suspicion amongst Americans to confuse and instigate opposition.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump also said that U.S. complaints against Huawei might be resolved within the framework of a U.S.-China trade deal, while at the same time calling the Chinese telecommunications giant “very dangerous”.

Lu said he did not know what Trump was talking about.

“Frankly, I’m actually not sure what the specific meaning of the U.S. leader, the U.S. side, saying this is,” he said.

He added that if the media was interested it should ask the U.S. to clarify.

Lu reiterated that the U.S. should stop using its national power to suppress and smear other countries’ companies, saying that China wanted to resolve differences between the two countries through friendly dialogue and consultation

. (Reuters/NAN)