Huawei calls on U.S. government to investigate it

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co has called on the U.S. government to launch a formal investigation of the company to allay any national security concerns it has about the telecommunications equipment company.

Huawei made the suggestion in an open letter published on its website on Thursday, a few days after it said it would give into a U.S. government recommendation that it should divest assets it had bought from 3Leaf, a U.S. technology company.

Huawei asked the government to investigate any doubts it may have about Huawei "in an effort to reach a clear and accurate conclusion."

It said its efforts to do business in the United States in the past 10 years had been hurt by misperceptions about the company such as unproven claims of "close connections with the Chinese military."

Huawei said founder Ren Zhengfei once served in the Chinese military from which he retired in 1983. He left another job to set up Huawei in 1987.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Andre Grenon)