U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Mike Turner (R-OH) on Feb. 3 unveiled a resolution criticizing the United Kingdom’s decision to permit a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled company to build part of its fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks.
“We are extremely disappointed that the United Kingdom seems poised to allow CCP-controlled Huawei to build much of their next-generation 5G networks,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement released this week by Republicans in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“Investing in Huawei technology only serves to fund the regime’s malign activity at home and across the globe,” they said, “from their internment of ethnic minorities in western China to spying on and stealing from Americans.”
Rep. McCaul, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sponsored House Resolution (H.Res.) 827 with four GOP cosponsors, including Rep. Turner, to affirm that all Chinese companies, private and state-owned, are under the effective control of the CCP, according to the text of the bill.
“Huawei equipment is absolute poison — providing them access to any aspect of a 5G network compromises the integrity of the entire system and will result in network data being sent back to Communist Party leaders in Beijing,” according to their statement.
The lawmakers also pointed out that the “special relationship” that the United States has with the UK is built on a shared commitment to freedom and security.
“The CCP — and by extension Huawei — is an affront to these core democratic principles,” said Reps. McCaul, Turner, and their colleagues. “We hope the UK will reverse course on this consequential decision and work with us to build a 5G future that will not only protect our mutual interests but will safeguard the values we share.”
H.Res. 827 is under consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.