Chinese official accuses Washington of 'Cold War' mentality The US House of Representatives's Intelligence Committee warned last month that equipment made by two Chinese electronics giants, Huwai and ZTE, posed a potential security risk because it could be used to eavesdrop on US telecoms networks. As evidence for its concerns, the report pointed out that both companies had Communist Party apparatchiks involved in their management. America is partly concerned about the relationship between Huawei and its founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former People's Liberation Army officer. He insists the firm is purely commercial, and denies maintaining any links with the country's armed forces. All Chinese state-owned enterprises and a growing number of private Chinese firms have a Communist Party secretary at the top of their management structure. In most cases, the top management are themselves party members. However, neither Huawei nor ZTE is state-owned. Mr Chen's broadside came as the Congress was told that China's booming economy was back on track once again, with officials claiming that the recent slowdown in growth had now halted. Gross domestic product was now predicted to exceed 7.5 per cent in 2012, said Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission. The figures will reassure the country's top policymakers that a long slide in economic growth may be over, and ease fears about diminishing public confidence in the party as they prepare to anoint the Communist Party first secretary, Xi Xinping, as their new president. Government officials are under pressure to introduce sweeping reforms to stop corruption and even out the gap between rich and poor, which has grown massively in the last decade.