Chinese telecommunications companies could help the country’s spy services blackmail leaders of crucial European allies, a bipartisan group of senators on the Foreign Relations Committee is warning.
“It can influence the weakest link in a chain that goes to the very top,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told the Washington Examiner. “If it’s not the leaders themselves, it’s a political-security apparatus, an economic apparatus somewhere that could lead to dire consequences.”
Gardner introduced a Senate resolution on Thursday reinforcing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s campaign to discourage European partnerships with telecom giants Huawei and ZTE. The resolution cautions that the proliferation of Chinese technology throughout Europe “would jeopardize the security of communication lines between the United States and those allies.” The United States “will consider all necessary measures to limit the risks” posed by partnerships with Huawei and ZTE in the vicinity of American forces, it adds.
“This is an existential security threat to the United States and our alliance,” Gardner said. “We need to send a warning shot to these countries that we will respond.”
The Republican senator co-sponsored the resolution with two Democratic colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee — Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Chris Coons of Delaware — to show European leaders that concerns about Chinese telecommunications companies are bipartisan and deep.
“In today’s increasingly connected world, we must work with our allies and partners to animate technology with our values, especially in 5G networks,” Markey said in a statement. “Chinese law requires its companies, including Huawei and ZTE, to fully cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party. If we don’t address emerging threats collectively, we stand to jeopardize our national security, the rules of the road, and the very underpinnings of the international system.”
The trio introduced the resolution the same day British officials reported that the software behind Huawei’s telecommunications equipment has “underlying defects” that “bring significantly increased risk to UK operators.” An oversight board informed Prime Minister Theresa May’s national security adviser that it has “not yet seen anything to give it confidence in Huawei’s capacity” to address the problems. The board “can only provide limited assurance that all risks to UK national security from Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s critical networks can be sufficiently mitigated long-term.”
The Federal Communications Commission warned last year that Chinese companies, among the largest smartphone makers in the world, are building secret “back doors” into the hardware they sell to Western countries. That threat will grow more serious if Chinese companies win the race to develop 5G, the next generation of wireless technology, and secure a foundational place in satellite and communication systems around the world.
“We have a choice between networks based on U.S. satellites or Chinese satellites,” a European official told the Washington Examiner last month. “Europe is going to have to make a choice because you can’t have both. … It just makes spying so much easier.”
Chinese spy services won’t be using telecom companies to hunt only for official government secrets, Gardner predicted.
“The danger of Huawei is this sniffing that they can do throughout these systems,” he told the Washington Examiner. “You put that in place and who knows what you can pick up.”
