Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., responded this week to reports that the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei is controlled by the Chinese military.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed into law Spanberger’s bipartisan legislation requiring a national strategy and a detailed implementation plan to protect American 5G telecommunications systems from foreign-based threats, like those from Huawei.
“Our country has long suspected close coordination between the Chinese military, Chinese intelligence services, and Chinese tech firms like Huawei — and if these disturbing reports are true, they represent a major threat to the integrity of our telecommunications networks here in the United States,” said Spanberger. “These findings from the Pentagon underscore the critical national security importance of the national 5G strategy required by law and implementation of this strategy as soon as possible, as mandated in the Secure 5G and Beyond Act. In this new era of working from home and running businesses online, we cannot afford to jeopardize the online security of American families, businesses, and government agencies. We must view this news as yet another reason to redouble our efforts to build up our resilience and competitiveness here at home, and we must work with our allies to confront and contain the dangerous threat of potential Chinese counterintelligence operations on our devices and networks.”
Spanberger’s Secure 5G and Beyond Act requires that the administration build an interagency strategy and detailed implementation plan to:
- Secure 5th generation and future-generation telecommunications systems and infrastructure across the United States,
- Assist U.S. allies and defense partners in maximizing the security of 5G systems and infrastructure in their countries, and
- Protect the competitiveness of U.S. companies, the privacy of U.S. consumers, and the integrity of international standards-setting bodies against foreign political influence.
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