House Committee Urges Government, Businesses to Not Buy From Chinese Telecom Vendors
A House Intelligence Committee report on Chinese telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE "strongly" recommended that U.S. companies consider seeking other vendors, saying there were long-term security risks associated with doing business with the companies. Committee leaders said in the report, released Oct. 8, that Huawei and ZTE failed to provide sufficient information over the course of the committee's yearlong investigation to assuage concerns that the Chinese government could influence the companies to use their equipment to spy or launch cyber attacks on U.S. entities.
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"Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems," the report said (here). The report also recommended U.S. government action against the companies, including urging the government and its contractors to"exclude" Huawei and ZTE-manufactured equipment and components from projects. Additionally, the report said lawmakers should consider legislation to address the risks of telecom companies seen to be connected to foreign governments or to otherwise not be trustworthy to build infrastructure.
The report asked the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. (CFIUS) to block Huawei and ZTE from buying or merging with U.S. companies because of national security interests, as well as calling for an expansion of CFIUS''s role to include purchasing agreements. Huawei and ZTE have denied their companies are a security risk, with executives from both companies saying at a committee hearing Sept. 13 that the Chinese government does not influence their business practices. Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said at an Oct. 8 press conference that those answers had not satisfied the committee.
Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer, who also attended the press conference, blasted the report and the committee's investigation, which he said had been politically motivated and had been set up with a "pre-determined" outcome. -- Jimm Phillips