United States Department of Defense has claimed that many Chinese firms, including the leading tech giant Huawei, are either backed or owned by the Chinese military. Local media reported On Wednesday that the list features China telecoms, Hikvision, AVIC, and China mobile.
This comes as Washington is pressuring other countries, including the UK, to ban Huawei for national security reasons. BBC reported that the list had been published to inform the businesses, potential partners, and investors of the role the Chinese firms may play in transferring technology to PLA.
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Experts have said that the list is likely to grow further. The American defense department is required to track the firms controlled by the Chinese military that are working in the US. In recent months Pentagon has been under immense pressure from both the Democrat and Republican lawmakers to publish and update the list.
Senator Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton in November wrote a letter to Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce, asking for an update on reviews of American policy that are mandated by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
The senators emphasized their concerns in the letter about the danger of exploiting critical American technologies to firms with Beijing ties. They also questioned the failure of the Commerce Department to complete export-control reviews mandated by the two acts.
Senators also stressed that the reviews must be conducted to access whether Beijing had been stealing US technology with military applications. The White House has already taken steps against Chinese firms, including Huawei, and bearing several American firms from selling specific technology without permission.
Meanwhile, Trump administration has also said that the trade war with Beijing, which resulted in tariffs of billions of dollars, was a response to the theft of US trade secrets. However, people in Washington have called on the White House to act more aggressively. In response, Huawei has denied the US accusations and described them as ‘’unsustainable allegations’’.
