Former Victorian premier John Brumby has resigned from the board of Huawei, the Chinese tech giant suspected of deep ties to Beijing's intelligence and espionage community.

Mr. Brumby says he made this decision facing a growing workload ahead of his appointment as La Trobe University chancellor in March.

"To be very clear about this, I advised the Australian board and headquarters over a year ago, in December 2017," he told the ABC, "When I made the announcement about joining La Trobe University six months ago, I also said that I'd be reviewing my directorships."

Brumby denies it has anything to do with Huawei's growing international problems.  Many countries - including Australia - have banned Huawei's products from their future 5G communications infrastructure after Western intelligence agencies warned the gear might be used to funnel information to Chinese spies. 

China is also at odds with the US and Canada after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested at Vancouver Airport on a US warrant.  She's currently grounded in the Western Canadian city as a judge decides whether to extradite her to the US to face charges of allegedly breaking economic sanctions on Iran.  Brumby thinks this goes against free trade principles.

"You're seeing Huawei caught up at the moment in the middle of a clash of systems, a titanic battle between the two biggest economies in the world," he said.  "There have been many other US corporations which have been fined for breaching sanctions against Iran, but in none of those cases were the CEO or the COO or the CFO ever dragged before the courts," said Brumby.