In recent months, the US, Australia and New Zealand have barred China’s Huawei from supplying parts of their future 5G networks over concerns its technology could be used for spying by Beijing; Canada, Britain and some other western countries are considering doing the same. Now, the Chinese telecoms group is on a charm offensive. Its reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, made a rare public appearance to rebuff the concerns. It wined and dined global media in Davos last week. But there are limits to how much the privately owned Huawei can do. International suspicion has as much to do with the nature of China’s system as with the company itself.

Beijing has adopted a harder-edged diplomacy. China’s EU ambassador warned in the Financial Times of “serious consequences” for global economic and scientific co-operation if its companies are excluded from European 5G projects. Huawei’s chairman Liang Hua suggested in Davos that growing criticism might prompt it to pull back to countries “where we are welcomed”.

Huawei is doing its best to present itself as a wronged innocent party. Mr Ren insisted it complied with all national regulations where it operated. The Chinese government, he added, had never asked it for data, and he would “definitely” refuse if that happened. The company has agreed to allow British security specialists to scrutinise its hardware and software at its Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, near Banbury, and has done something similar in Germany. Mr Liang challenged critics to prove claims that its products might offer a backdoor to Chinese snooping or cyber attacks.