Asian Tech Press (Sep 20) -- China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) began hacking into servers at the headquarters of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in 2009.

In a post, the MSS noted that in 2009, the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), a unit of the NSA, had begun to hack into servers at Huawei's headquarters and conduct ongoing surveillance.

It also found that in September 2022, the U.S. intelligence agency conducted tens of thousands of malicious cyberattacks on Chinese cyber targets, including the Northwestern Polytechnical University, over a long and sustained period of time, taking control of tens of thousands of cyber devices and stealing large amounts of high-value data.

The Chinese security watchdog pointed out that the US has been carrying out cyberattacks and cyberespionage operations against 45 countries and regions around the world, including China and Russia, for more than a decade, utilizing cyberattack weapons such as Bvp47, Quantum, FOXACID and Hive.

In addition, the watchdog accused the U.S. government of forcibly implanting backdoors in the devices, software, and apps of relevant tech companies, and using embedded code, vulnerability attacks, and other means to facilitate the monitoring and theft of global data with its global tech companies' influence.

Interestingly, the article came at a time when Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei's comments about US tech company iPhone maker Apple Inc. were making the rounds on the Chinese internet.

Asked if he himself was an Apple fan, Ren responded, "We don't want to be xenophobic, and we often explore why Apple products are good, and we can also see the gap between us and Apple."

Ren regarded Apple as Huawei's teacher and said, "It's a blessing to have a teacher who gives you the opportunity to learn and make comparisons."