Washington has repeatedly warned about Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei citing its ties to the Chinese government as a security risk. Now, Huawei is trying to convince the government that it is not, in fact, a risk and should not be targeted by law enforcement or burdensome regulations. In that public relations fight, the Shenzhen-based company recently scored a hard-hitting advocate: Samir Jain, a former Obama administration cybersecurity official.
Jain, who previously served as a National Security Council senior director for cybersecurity policy as well as a former associate deputy attorney general, notified Congress at the end of March that he had a new gig: lobbying for Huawei.
In that disclosure he noted that he’d specifically be lobbying on issues related to “foreign investment, government purchasing, and security-related issues arising under the National Defense Authorization Act.”
Working for a foreign government, even as a lobbyist, is not in and of itself a problem. In fact, that such lobbying would occur seems to be an unavoidable, if slightly sleazy, reality of globally connected commerce regulated by various jurisdictions.
But jumping ship from the White House to a company that the U.S. government has expressed not unjustified concerns about seems at least a little beyond the pale.
Indeed one of the issues that Jain will specifically be advocating for Huawei on is the the National Defense Authorization Act. That act, among other things, prohibited the government from purchasing and using Huawei products based on national security concerns. Defending the company against those allegations to lawmakers is then tantamount to toeing the Chinese government’s line and repeating “nothing to see here,” never mind that Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou is facing extradition to the U.S., a Huawei employee was arrested in Poland on spying charges, and a recent report from the U.K. outlined serious security concerns.
In March, Huawei sued the U.S. government alleging the legislation is unconstitutional and amounts to punishing the company for an alleged crime that was never proven. Regardless of the success of Huawei’s legal arguments, however, Washington is unlikely to suddenly stop seeing the company as a threat. Indeed, combating the spread of Huawei technology both in the U.S. and abroad has emerged as a centerpiece of Trump administration policies.
For Jain, that means there will be plenty of work. For Huawei, it means that he’s a great catch. For the U.S.? Let’s hope that high-end government credentials don’t result in a blind eye to real security concerns from Huawei.
