Unchecked Huawei Would Send Western Competitors Into ‘Tailspin,’ Says Warner
The need for U.S. leadership on “pragmatic tech-savvy policy” toward China “has never been greater,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told a National Democratic Institute webinar Wednesday. “We need help from the private sector to support our technological leadership and national defense, and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable” for bad trade behavior and human rights abuses, he said.
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U.S. companies “should not benefit from or facilitate state-sponsored regressive efforts” in China, said Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Trump administration needs to mount “a rigorous information campaign with the private sector” so American businesses can make “better-informed, risk-based decisions” about collaborating with China and its “state-directed companies,” he said.
“Clear prohibitions” are needed, beyond the “slow and convoluted export control regime” used against Huawei, to prevent U.S. companies from “facilitating state-sponsored repressive efforts” in China, said Warner. American enterprises and researchers shouldn't work with Chinese government-affiliated companies or universities on biometric profiling, facial recognition or artificial intelligence, he said.
The U.S. needs to work with like-minded “democratic allies” like India, Israel, Japan and South Korea to “ensure that we don’t lose the technology race with China,” advised Warner. “We need to set up our country to stay competitive in the future” in technologies that promise “wider innovation,” like 5G, he said. “If we have autonomous vehicles and augmented reality, it will ride on a 5G network. The issue of 5G security goes beyond Chinese hardware.” If the U.S. doesn’t take security “more seriously,” 5G will raise a series of broader concerns about network management and “complexity,” he said.
Such 5G networks will offer connectivity for an “unprecedented number” of IoT devices, each with new security challenges, said Warner. ”It’s not just about keeping Huawei out of our networks. If Huawei’s market share alone holds, it will jeopardize the stability of any Western alternatives that remain.” If Huawei is able to gain 50% of global share, regardless of what the U.S. does to curtail its 5G role, that “longer term” will send “some of its best-known competitors” like Ericsson and Nokia into a “tailspin,” he said. “Imagine the resulting vulnerabilities for our entire economy if we were totally dependent on a single Chinese technology source for 5G.”
Huawei typifies “national champions” in China that receive “enormous benefits and subsidies” from the Chinese government to compete around the world, said Warner. “The reality is that we’ve got to take this on,” he said. Below the radar in Congress is a “growing bipartisan recognition” that the U.S. “might need to start bringing out industrial policy tools of its own to foster competition and give non-Chinese companies a more level playing field against these state-backed champions,” he said.
The administration’s “haphazard actions” on TikTok fail the honesty test and smack of “protectionism,” said Warner. They will “only invite retaliation against American companies,” he said. “American credibility on what constitutes a national security threat is beginning to wear thin,” exacerbated by tariffs on aluminum and steel “on some of our closest allies,” he said. “I don’t think most of us think of Canada or Mexico as a national security threat. Those actions undermine the clarity and cogency of our arguments against technologies and firms that do represent very grave national security threats.” The White House, China's embassy in Washington and Huawei didn't respond to Warner's remarks.