Gina Raimondo, the nominated candidate of US President Joe Biden to become Secretary of Commerce, speaks at an event to introduce members of Biden’s team for economics and work at its transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on January 8, 2021 announce.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Three hardliners in China in the Senate call on President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Commerce to explain whether she will remove Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies from a trading list under any circumstances .
The letter from Republican senators Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton comes after the nominee, Gina Raimondo, governor of Rhode Island, sparked anger among Chinese hawks when she promised to protect American telecommunications networks from Chinese companies, but did not want to. committed to keeping Huawei on the list. .
“We ask that you respond in writing with your views or provide any scenario in which you, if confirmed as Secretary, … will remove Huawei from the list of entities,” or relax the rules governing access to 5G technology regulate. , the Senators wrote in the letter, which was released Friday.
“The company has not changed with the U.S. presidency,” they warned.
The letter is a sign of increasing pressure from Capitol Hill for President Joe Biden to take a hard line on Beijing. The Biden team generally forged clear policy commitments over China before entering service earlier this month, but promised to maintain a tough stance while using a more strategic, multilateral approach.
Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, put Huawei on a trading blacklist in May 2019 and led a global campaign to persuade allies to exclude it from their 5G networks.
Washington has accused the company of spying on its customers, as well as theft of intellectual property and violations of sanctions. Huawei denies it.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the government would work to protect U.S. telecommunications networks from “unreliable providers” such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. that threaten national security. It provides some insight into its plans for China’s top telecommunications equipment business, long in Washington’s cross.
But the remarks were not enough to persuade the three senators, who raised fears of opposition to other trade department nominees if they did not commit to a tough enough technology policy against Beijing.
“It is equally essential that all nominees from the Department of Commerce follow your leadership to address or jeopardize both the dangers of the (Chinese Communist Party) and the need to (Chinese) access to American technology that could ( is dangerous to American interests, “they wrote.” If these nominees do not make it clear that they will adhere to these broad concerns and goals, Congress could face them significantly.