China pushes back on report of Trump phone tapping, suggests he switch to Huawei

China on Thursday pushed back against a New York Times report that the country has been listening in on President Trump’s phone calls.

“Firstly, the New York Times should know that such report just provides another piece of evidence that the NYT is making fake news,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The Times reported Wednesday that U.S. spy agencies have determined that Russia and China have been eavesdropping on Trump’s personal phone calls.

{mosads}Trump slammed the report, saying the “story is soooo wrong!”

As she pushed back on the report, Hua jokingly suggested Trump could switch to a phone from the Chinese tech company Huawei, which has been identified as a security threat since 2012.

“Secondly, I suggest they replace their iPhone with Huawei ones if they are really concerned about security issues,” Hua said, adding that if the U.S. is still concerned about the security of Huawei’s products, Trump could “abandon all modern communication devices and cut off contact with the outside completely.”

Trump previously banned the government from using Huawei’s products and the Democratic National Committee has warned candidates against doing so.

The administration and lawmakers have been working to crack down on the company’s ties to the U.S. more broadly.

Earlier this month, a source close to the Trump administration told The Hill that the National Security Council has begun asking government agencies to find ways to limit the involvement of Chinese tech companies, likely including Huawei, in the coming rollout of a new American 5G network. 

In June, a group of bipartisan lawmakers sent a letter urging Google to break its partnership with Huawei over its close connections to the Chinese Communist Party.