An upcoming film set to be released in fall seeks to shine a light on the connection between telecom giant Huawei—the world’s second-largest smartphone maker by volume—and China’s ruling communist party.
The film “Claws of the Red Dragon” is inspired by the arrest of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, at Vancouver International Airport last year at the request of the U.S. government, and the following deterioration of the Canada-China relationship. In what appears to be retaliation, the Chinese regime detained two Canadians and accused them of spying, while also sentencing another two Canadians to death for drug-related crimes.
Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was charged with conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction. Ren, who officially holds 1.4 percent of Huawei’s shares, has a background in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The U.S. government is currently seeking her extradition.
One of the film’s executive producers, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, said “Claws of the Red Dragon” attempts to expose “the inner workings of the [Chinese Communist Party] and Huawei.”
“This is a very powerful film,” Bannon said in an interview with The Epoch Times’s program American Thought Leaders. “I think it opens up and explains in a dramatic form exactly what’s going on with China’s encroachment into the technology area throughout the world. People will be shocked.”
“I’ve tested [it] here in the United States in Washington D.C. … tested it with some fairly senior people in the U.S. government and they were stunned by some of the revelations in the film,” he added.
Bannon, who is currently the Chairman of the Rule of Law Society and Co-Founder of the Committee on the Present Danger: China, said the film is significant as it explores the looming threat the Chinese regime poses to the West through its global technological dominance ambitions.
“The backbone of the future of technology is 5G, [it] will be a dominant technology,” Bannon said. “Right now, the path that Huawei has taken as a front for the PLA is to basically take over the networks and the components throughout the world. If we allow this to happen even for a couple of more years, Huawei is going to control basically the communications systems of the West and therefore will be able to control the West.”
President Donald Trump deems Huawei as a “national security threat,” saying on Aug. 19 that “at this moment it looks much more like we’re not going to do business.”
The Chinese telecom giant has been fighting over a trade ban since May, amid the ongoing trade war. The ban has effectively blocked Huawei from doing business with U.S. companies without a special license.
U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced strong concerns that Huawei’s equipment could be used by the Chinese regime for spying, given the company’s close ties with Beijing.
A recent study found that about 100 Huawei staffers had links to Chinese military or intelligence agencies. Huawei’s former CEO, Sun Yafang, also worked for China’s top espionage agency, the Ministry of State Security, before joining the company.
Research conducted by cybersecurity firm Finite State in June, found over 102 known vulnerabilities among the 550 Huawei devices examined, exposing their users to high security risks.
The Washington administration has also banned Huawei from building the next-generation 5G networks over national security concerns, and cautioned U.S. allies against working with Huawei.
So far, the United States has blacklisted more than 100 of Huawei’s affiliates. Officials granted a 90-day extension earlier this week that allows the firm to buy U.S. products while giving U.S. companies more time to transition away from doing business with Huawei.
“We’ve been very clear with Canada and with all of our allies that we consider Huawei incompatible with the security interests of the United States of America or our allies in freedom-loving nations across the world,” said Vice President Mike Pence in Ottawa, Canada during a May press conference.
The film will be distributed by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) and stars actors Dorren Lee, Taras Lavren, and Eric Peterson.
From The Epoch Times
