(Presidentialwire.com)- Chinese technology companies could soon face additional sanctions from the U.S. government if a bipartisan bill introduced this week passes.
The bill would place additional sanctions on Chinese 5G companies and specifically Huawei Technologies Ltd, which would restrict them from accessing any banks in the United States. The legislation was introduced by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, but also has the backing of prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The bill aims to “severely sanction” Huawei as well as other “untrustworthy” Chinese producers of 5G who the lawmakers say engage in economic spying against America.
If the bill passes, these entities would all be added to the Specially Designated Nationals list compiled by the Treasury Department, which would effectively lock them out completely from the financial system in the United States.
According to a recent Reuters report, the Chinese Foreign Ministry commented:
“China firmly opposes the U.S.’ generalization of the concept of national security, [and its] abuse of state power to suppress Chinese enterprises.”
Further, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said at a press briefing recently that China would “firmly safeguard” the legitimate interests and rights of these Chinese companies after the lawmakers in America introduced this new bill.
Similar legislation was proposed two years ago when former President Donald Trump was still in the White House. It would’ve curbed the access that Huawei currently has to U.S. banks.
In his own statement released Tuesday, Cotton said:
“We’ve made great strides in recent years at home and abroad in combating Huawei’s malign attempts to dominate 5G and steal Americans’ data. We cannot allow Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Americans’ personal data and our country’s most sensitive defense systems.”
Huawei has long been a concern, and target, for U.S. government officials because of its direct ties to the Chinese government and claims of espionage.
Back in October, U.S. prosecutors filed charges against two Chinese nationals who were trying to obstruct the prosecution of Huawei in a separate case. The prosecutors say this was just another example of how China was trying to engage in unlawful influence.
The Chinese nationals, according to a Reuters report, tried to recruit a law enforcement agent in the U.S. to work for them as a spy. Unfortunately for them, the U.S. agent was working as a double agent for the U.S. at the time.
Both Zheng Wang and Guochun He were charged with attempting to interfere in the prosecution. While Huawei was not named in those court documents, the complaint did reference the same dates in which the U.S. unsealed charges against that company back in 2019 and 2020.
Huawei is one of the largest technology companies in the world. It ranks second only behind Samsung in terms of producing the most smartphones on the planet. In addition, it produces consumer goods and other telecommuncations equipment.
