It is highly ironic because the US government claimed that Huawei was installing backdoors in its products, when it wasn't, while its own spooks were providing access through Cisco gear.

Now it seems that China has decided to cut its losses abd dropped some of the world's leading technology brands from its approved state purchase lists, while approving thousands more locally made products.

Cisco Systems was the worst hit. In 2012 it had 60 products on the Central Government Procurement Center's (CGPC) list, but now it has none.

Apple has also been dropped, along with McAfee, network, and server software firm Citrix Systems.

The number of approved foreign tech brands one the list fell by a third, while less than half of those with security-related products survived the cull.

An official at the procurement agency said there were many reasons why local makers might be preferred, including sheer weight of numbers and the fact that domestic security technology firms offered more product guarantees than overseas rivals