US. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has accused the Chinese telecommunications maker Huawei Technologies Co. of trying to spy on U.S. companies by embedding spyware in its equipment. In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Blackburn said Huawei embeds spyware into global networks “and this is why we are concerned about working with them.”
“I think we need to be tough on China when it comes to intellectual property and forced technology transfer, and we need to be very tough on them about Huawei because that is what will underpin their spy network and we cannot allow them to get a foothold in these networks,” Blackburn said.
In a television interview from Nashville, Blackburn said artists, music producers and technicians nearby in Music City are among those whose intellectual property is in danger.
“These chips are so small you cannot detect them until they begin to transmit to an outside receptor,” she said. “At that point, they are into your network and they are spying on you and they are manipulating the data within your networks.”
Although Huawei has denied it uses spyware in its equipment, Blackburn said Huawei is part of the military industrial complex in China working to spy on other countries. The Tennessee senator, a member of the Senate subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, said last month it would be dangerous to allow Huawei access to U.S. fifth generation (5G) wireless networks.
“The issue is that Huawei is a state-owned company and China is looking to push one-way technology around the globe,” she said on CNBC today. “Why do they want to do this? Because they want to spy. How are they doing it? They are embedding spyware into their hardware. I believe this is something that they are looking to standup their cyber warfare with and we have to be very careful how we deal with Huawei.”
Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecom equipment, was added to the Commerce Department’s “entity list” in May due to national security concerns. US. companies are banned from doing business with companies included on that list. But a month go, President Trump announced at the Group of 20 summit in Japan that he would allow US. companies to sell equipment to Huawei. Trump added that “we’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it.” Trump has frequently complained about China violating intellectual property rules and trying to steal American technology, leading the administration to impose a series of increased import duties on Chinese imports.
