U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) joined several other Republicans in requesting that the Biden administration impose sanctions on Huawei Cloud and other People’s Republic of China (PRC) cloud computing services operating in the United States.
“We are deeply concerned about this growing trend of PRC-based cloud computing services engaging with entities that directly impact the national security interests of the United States,” wrote the senators in an April 25 letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Sens. Tillis, Daines, Ernst and their colleagues cited open-source information that they say shows Huawei Cloud and PRC-based cloud computing services are increasingly engaging with foreign entities — in some cases sanctioned foreign entities — that are directly challenging the national security and economic security interests of the United States and its allies and partners, according to their letter.
For instance, Huawei Cloud said in December 2021 that it had launched its Sky Computing Constellation in co-sponsorship with several entities, including the Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute, also known as Spacety China, which the Treasury Department on Jan. 26 imposed sanctions against for providing synthetic aperture radar satellite imagery orders of locations in Ukraine to the Russian entity Terra Tech.
“In light of this, we therefore urge you to impose sanctions on Huawei Cloud under existing authorities for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of recently sanctioned Spacety,” the senators wrote.
Additionally, they urged the administration officials “to use all available tools to engage in decisive action against these firms, through sanctions, export restrictions, and investment bans and to further investigate PRC cloud computing service companies,” according to their letter.
Sens. Daines, Tillis, Ernst and their colleagues also requested that the administration further investigate and act against China’s other cloud service providers — such as Baidu Cloud and Tencent Cloud — and their direct or indirect operations in the U.S. “that negatively impact our national security and foreign policy interests.”