Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies, left, speaks during an interview at the company's headquarters in Shenzhen, China, in January.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Huawei employees helped African governments spy on political opponents by using cell data to track their location and intercepting encrypted communications and social media, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.
The report, which did not find evidence that Huawei executives in China were aware of or approved the activities in Africa, could still add ammunition to the U.S. government's allegations that Huawei could be used for espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. Huawei has denied these claims, but the U.S. has remained wary of the smartphone maker, with the Department of Justice filing criminal charges in two separate cases in January, alleging its CFO committed wire fraud and violated U.S. sanctions on Iran and that the company stole trade secrets from T-Mobile.
The WSJ investigation did not find evidence of spying activity by or on behalf of the Chinese government in Africa. It also did not find any unique features in Huawei's technology that allowed spying activity to occur.
In two separate cases in Uganda and Zambia, the Journal found that Huawei employees used its technology to aid domestic spying on behalf of governments in those countries. Huawei technicians working in Uganda's police headquarters ..
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