SHANGHAI, Aug. 23: Warning about a potential threat to national security, eight Republican lawmakers have asked the Obama administration to scrutinise a bid by one of the biggest corporations in China to supply telecommunications equipment to Sprint Nextel in the US.
In a letter sent last week to top administration officials, including treasury secretary Mr Timothy F. Geithner and the director of national intelligence, Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., the senators expressed concern over claims that the company had sold equipment to the regime of Saddam Hussein and had a close business relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran.
The senators also said the company, Huawei Inc., had close ties to the People’s Liberation Army in China.
“Sprint Nextel supplies important equipment to the US military and law enforcement agencies, and it offers a broad array of devices, systems, software and services to the private sector,” wrote the group of senators, including Mr Jon Kyl of Arizona, Mr Christopher S. Bond of Missouri and Ms Susan Collins of Maine. “We are concerned that Huawei’s position as a supplier of Sprint Nextel could create substantial risk for US companies and possibly undermine U.S. national security.”
A campaign to block Huawei’s bid to sell equipment in the US would almost certainly aggravate American-Chinese trade relations and intensify a longstanding debate over whether big Chinese companies will be allowed to invest in sensitive industries in the US.
Several Chinese companies, including Huawei, have repeatedly been discouraged or blocked in recent years from doing business with American companies because of national security concerns, decisions that have angered Chinese officials and business leaders.