Former U.S. cybersecurity official Samir Jain has accepted a position lobbying for Chinese telecom company Huawei.
President Trump tweeted last Sunday, criticizing the Obama-era White House official, saying, “This is not good, or acceptable!”
Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei hires former Obama Cyber Security Official as a lobbyist. This is not good, or acceptable! @FoxNews @SteveHiltonx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019
Congressman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) of the House Intelligence Committee said there is a clear conflict between Jain’s lobbying work and the national interest.
Stewart spoke at Capitol Hill about the threats posed by communist China. “[It’s] difficult for me to understand that there is not a conflict there, between what is in our—we know—national interest, and protecting American freedom and democracy and privacy. And you can’t say, ‘Well, Huawei is just another technological company,’ because they’re not,” he said.
Stewart warned that technological cooperation with Chinese companies incurs a high level of risk, especially with regard to using Huawei and ZTE equipment.
“You are nuts, if you have Huawei or ZTE equipment anywhere—anywhere—in your system or supply chain,” Stewart said.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also voiced concern about China’s Huawei and 5G equipment. He said banning Huawei’s 5G equipment from entering the U.S. market is far from enough to render the threat ineffective.
“[T]hey missed the whole point. Huawei is now in 60 or 70 countries. Now, how are you going to operate worldwide if virtually every country in the world has a Chinese Internet system?” Gingrich said.
The United States, Australia, and New Zealand have banned the telecom giant, and some European countries are also considering a ban. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against Huawei for fraud, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and conspiracy to obstruct justice related to a grand jury investigation in the Eastern District of New York among other charges.
Gingrich said the Huawei case is a typical example of how China treats the West and free societies. “We haven’t had a wake-up call. We don’t understand what the problem is. We don’t understand what the scale of the responses going to have to be,” he said. “This is going be a long-term struggle, between a civilization that believes in liberty and a civilization that believes in authoritarianism with Chinese characteristics.”
