Gina Raimondo, US President Joe Biden’s candidate to become Secretary of Commerce, speaks at an event to announce members of Biden’s economics and jobs team at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, January 8, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Three Chinese hardliners in the Senate are calling on President Joe Biden’s candidate to lead the head of the trade department to clarify whether she would remove Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies from a blacklist under any circumstances.
The letter from Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton comes after the nominee, Governor of Rhode Island Gina Raimondo, caused outrage among the Chinese hawks when she pledged to protect US telecommunications networks from Chinese companies but refused to commit to Huawei on the list.
“We ask you to respond in writing with your views on whether you envision a scenario where, if confirmed as Secretary, you would … remove Huawei … from the entity list,” or relax the rules governing access to 5G technology . , the senators wrote in the letter released Friday.
“The company hasn’t changed alongside the US presidency,” they warned.
The letter is a sign of increasing pressure from Capitol Hill on President Joe Biden to crack down on Beijing. The Biden team generally stayed away from clear policy commitments to China before taking office earlier this month, but has pledged to take a tough stance and take a more strategic, multilateral approach.
Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, blacklisted Huawei in May 2019 and led a global campaign to convince allies to keep it out of their 5G networks.
Washington has accused the company of being able to spy on customers, as well as intellectual property theft and violations of sanctions. Huawei has denied wrongdoing.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the government will work to protect US telecom networks from “untrusted vendors” such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd who threaten national security. This provided some insight into his plans for China’s best telecom equipment company, long in Washington’s crosshairs.
But the comments were not enough to reassure the three senators, who raised the specter of opposition to other Trade Department nominees if they don’t commit to a tough enough technology policy against Beijing.
“ It is equally imperative that all Department of Commerce nominees follow your leadership by recognizing both the dangers of the (Chinese Communist Party) and the need to promote (Chinese) access to American technology that can further (their) ambitions. hinder or squeeze. are dangerous to US interests, ”they wrote. “If these nominees don’t make it clear that they will adhere to these broad concerns and goals, they could face significant opposition from Congress,” she added.