In July 2009, Owens assumed the post of non-executive Chairman of US telecommunications company, CenturyLink. In August 2009, one month after his appointment at CenturyLink, Owens founded Amerilink Telecom Corp., a US telecommunications consultancy which partnered with China's Huawei Technologies in an effort to win a major contract with Sprint for its multi-billion dollar network upgrade project. Amerilink's role in this effort appears to have been to provide independent verification by trusted Americans that Huawei Technologies would not represent a security threat to the U.S. as well as to monitor Huawei Technologies activities on an ongoing basis were it to win the contract. In addition to Admiral Owens, the Amerilink Board included Gordon England, who served as deputy secretary of defense and homeland security under former President George W. Bush, former Speaker of the House, Richard Gephardt, and former World Bank President James Wolfensohn. Huawei Technologies provided considerable guarantees concerning security concerns, included offering to convey its code to security officials. But security concerns prevailed and may help explain Sprint's decision not to work with Huawei.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Owens_(admiral)
Amerilink, Huawei’s American mask
Suspected by Congress of being linked to the Chinese army, Huawei is working in the U.S. in partnership with Amerilink, which is headed by a former U.S. Navy admiral.
https://www.intelligenceonline.com/due-diligence/2010/10/21/amerilink-huawei-s-american-mask,85858045-ART