China's ambassador to the EU claims that U.S. fears over Huawei stealing information is based on their own alleged use of companies to gain intelligence on other countries.

Huawei is at the heart of a global technological battle for dominance with the U.S. trying to convince allies to exclude its gear from the next generation 5G networks. It claims that the equipment could be used by China for spying.

The U.S. placed Huawei on a blacklist in May last year citing national security concerns.

Now China's ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, says that it appeared the U.S. worries were caused by believing that companies would act in a similar way to them. It has been alleged that the U.S. have used an agency called Crypto to "steal" intelligence.

Read more: Swiss probe claims of U.S. and German espionage at encryption firm

Zhang told a press conference he had been reading that  "US intelligence have been using an agency called Crypto to steal information. 

"So it is clearer why the U.S. is so insistent on attacking this Chinese company because they are trying to work out the thinking of others and by their logic, they themselves are using companies to steal secrets for their own interests - and they think that other companies from other countries will do the same.

"The U.S. is yet to come up with any solid evidence to support this argument so as an ordinary citizen I have no other explanation for their behavior except the one I just referred to."

Switzerland is investigating claims that U.S. and German spies took control of a Swiss encryption firm in order to access top-secret dispatches of other nations.