A former top official in the US defence department during the George W. Bush administration has joined the board of Amerilink, a consultancy that has teamed up with Huawei of China in a bid for a major US telecommunications contract.

Gordon England, who served as deputy secretary of defence and homeland security, was working under the Bush administration in 2008 when the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, forced Huawei to abandon a bid to takeover a US technology company because of security concerns.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr England said he has joined Amerilink because he was “very impressed” by the company’s plans to offer US carriers independent verification that technology manufactured abroad could be used in US communications systems securely.