U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and a bipartisan group of Senators have sent a letter to Members of the House of Commons expressing significant concerns with the United Kingdom’s decision to allow Huawei Technologies to take part in its 5G network infrastructure. The letter highlights Huawei’s close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence-gathering authorities and steps the United States has taken to ban Huawei from its own network infrastructure.
“Given the significant security, privacy, and economic threats posed by Huawei, we strongly urge the United Kingdom to revisit its recent decision, take steps to mitigate the risks of Huawei, and work in close partnership with the U.S. on such efforts going forward.”
They continued, “We understand the challenges the U.K. faces regarding a lack of diverse, secure, and affordable suppliers. These are challenges we also face here in the United States. However, the security and integrity of our telecommunications infrastructure cannot be compromised for convenience. We therefore ask for commitments from our respective governments – along with trusted partners such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and European allies – to work together to advance a comprehensive strategy to secure our 5G systems.”
Senator Hawley has taken additional steps to address Huawei’s threats to American security, introducing a bill to prevent sensitive academic research projects from using Huawei technologies, demanding answers from Google on their relationship with the company, and joining a bipartisan letter to President Trump requesting he suspend approval of licenses allowing some U.S. companies to do business with Huawei.
Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) also signed onto the letter.
Full text can be found here.