Two GOP senators introduced a bill on Wednesday to prevent the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecom equipment from Huawei or ZTE Corp, according to Reuters, on grounds of national security.
One of the proposers, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, said, “Huawei is effectively an arm of the Chinese government, and it’s more than capable of stealing information from U.S. officials by hacking its devices.”
The Chinese telecom giant is currently the largest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world, but has faced repeated rejection from US lawmakers when trying to access the American market. Earlier this year, AT&T Inc was pressured by congress to back out of a deal which would enable it to offer customers Huawei-made handsets, over fears that this could be used for spying by the Chinese state.
“There are plenty of other companies that can meet our technology needs, and we shouldn’t make it any easier for China to spy on us”, Cotton added.