Xiang Ligang, a Beijing- based telecom expert, said the biggest threat to information security is not from the equipment but people's actions.

"Huawei has been shut out of the US market for the same reason, but from the Edward Snowden case we see that the US government, which doesn't use Huawei's products, was monitoring their own citizens, foreign diplomats and other countries' officials," Xiang said.

He Maochun, director of the Economy and Diplomacy Research Center at Tsinghua University, said it is unfair to dump Chinese products because of fear rather than evidence.

"Many Chinese telecom companies such as Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei are treated unfairly in Western markets for similar reasons. And the cases are likely to appear when Chinese telecom products are entering their markets on a large scale," He said.

The director said Chinese companies can improve transparency on information security and give foreign markets more confidence in their products.

"Industrial associations and the Chinese government should try to support the companies to pursue more legal measures to protect the rights they deserve," he added.

Many British products, such as financial services and construction equipment, are imported to China every year. If China treated UK companies the same way, it would be unfair to the British companies, the director said.