WASHINGTON, DC -- Huawei and ZTE officials on Thursday insisted to the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee that their commercially sold equipment is not used for covert operations.

The House is investigating the possibility that the two companies are working in concert with the Chinese government to infiltrate and possibly corrupt US Internet networks.

"We have heard reports about backdoors or unexplained beaconing from the equipment sold by both companies," Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) remarked to the panel.

Both companies see the US as a lucrative market, but the US government is concerned that the businesses are fronts for China. A negative House finding could lead to measures to ban Huawei and ZTE from the US market.

For their part, both companies strenuously denied their products are used for espionage, and asserted they would never allow a government to use them for such purposes. However, they did agree to release the names of employees who are members of the China Communist Party, something they had previously declined to do.

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