MUNICH — Western democracies should heed President Trump’s warnings against partnering with China’s leading telecommunications companies or fall prey to Beijing’s authoritarianism, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned an assembly of European politicians and diplomats.
“Be very careful when you go down this path, unless you want to end up with a society like China, or an economy like China, which is not in a free enterprise mode,” she told the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
That message put the California Democrat, fresh off of leading an impeachment investigation that died in the Republican-controlled Senate, in the unusual position of aligning with Trump on a dispute that has dominated U.S. and European diplomatic conversations over the last year. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned that Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications giants are major espionage threats, but European allies have resisted that advice, to Pelosi’s surprise.
“I don’t know why it’s not self-evident to everyone that you do not want to give that power to an entity created by the People’s Liberation Army,” she told the conference.
The United Kingdom plans to permit the Beijing-backed companies to have limited access to their 5G networks, arguing that they can mitigate the intelligence risks and protect their classified data. Other countries could follow suit, as Huawei is offering ultra-low-cost telecom packages in a bid to get in on the ground floor of the next-generation wireless infrastructure. Pelosi, acknowledging that her comments “might not be agreeable to everybody,” framed the potential partnerships as a gift to a Chinese communist regime that is “seeking to export its digital autocracy” around the world.
“Nations cannot cede our telecommunications infrastructure to China for financial expediency,” she said. “Such an ill-conceived concession only emboldens Xi as he undermines democratic values, human rights, economic independence, and national security.”
Her full-throated condemnation of Huawei seemed to take some of the European audience by surprise. “Does that mean that you agree in substance with the China policy of President Trump?” an attendee asked during the question-and-answer session.
The answer was yes. “We have agreement in that regard,” Pelosi said. “I do believe that it is a real danger, a real danger to put all of that power in the Sinofication of 5G.”
