Emergency ban on China ‘spy firms’
President Donald Trump is preparing to declare a national emergency and outlaw two of China’s biggest telecoms companies over claims that they are being used to spy on America.
An executive order is said to have been drafted for Trump which, if signed in the new year, will prohibit Huawei and ZTE from doing business in the US.
There are growing concerns in the West about Beijing’s use of the two companies’ products to spy on foreign powers. Gavin Williamson, the British defence secretary, has said he has ‘‘very deep concerns’’ about Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network.
The executive order is said to have been under consideration for months as the Five Eyes intelligence network – the US, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and Australia – debates how to deal with espionage. New Zealand and Australia have already banned the company from their 5G projects, and the US blocks them from government contracts.
A White House official said the US was ‘‘working across government and with our allies and likeminded partners to mitigate risk in the deployment of 5G and other communications infrastructure’’.
Trump can invoke the ban without a bill in Congress through a law that allows the president to implement trade restrictions during a national emergency. The executive order does not mention the Chinese companies by name but commerce officials spoken to by the Reuters news agency said they were believed to be the target.
Such a move could win support in Congress. Mark Warner, a Democratic senator who is critical of the Chinese tech companies, told The Times there was ‘‘ample evidence to suggest that no major Chinese company is independent of the Chinese government and Communist Party. It has been clear for some time that Huawei and ZTE pose threats to our national security.’’
In October, Warner and Marco Rubio, the Republican senator for Florida, urged Justin Trudeau to ban Huawei sales in Canada.
The proposed US ban could inflame a growing trade war between the two sides, in which Trump is demanding that China lowers tariffs on US imports and end alleged intellectual property theft from American companies. The US is due to levy US$200 billion (NZ$298b) of tariffs on Beijing in March unless an agreement can be reached.
Huawei, which was founded by a former People’s Liberation Army officer and is the larger of the two companies in question, has been under particular scrutiny. In July, Five Eyes intelligence chiefs agreed to warn publicly of the dangers it posed.
Huawei and ZTE have denied that their products are used for espionage. Despite the scrutiny of their 5G technology, the companies have grown markedly in recent years. In a defiant new year’s message titled ‘‘Fire is the Test of Gold’’, Huawei’s chairman Guo Ping reported that the company expected revenue to grow by 21 per cent in 2018 to US$108.5 billion.
The US has targeted the companies in the past. In August, Trump signed a bill into law that banned the government from using their equipment. He had been criticised for lifting sanctions imposed on ZTE by the commerce department to punish it for doing business with North Korea. President Xi Jinping had asked him to intercede and the lifting of the sanctions was seen as a capitulation to Beijing.
Even without a government ban, some American organisations are refusing to do business with Huawei: the Washington Redskins American football team is believed to have cancelled a deal this week for the company to provide free internet in its stadium. – The Times