U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA) together urged president Donald Trump to back the Senate's ban on U.S. government equipment purchases from China's state-owned ZTE Corporation.
In 2011, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recommended the U.S. be prohibited from buying equipment from ZTE, describing this telecom equipment manufacturing firm as a threat to national security. Last month, Trump surprisingly lifted the ban on ZTE, a gift that saved the company from financial ruin. Political analysts said Trump is using ZTE as a bargaining chip in his de facto trade war against China.
In their letter to Trump, Warner and Rubio pointed out that "The Senate and the U.S. Intelligence Community are in agreement that ZTE poses a significant threat to our national security. The Senate recently voted 85-10 to reimpose the April sanctions order and the ban on ZTE buying U.S. components and to prohibit the U.S. federal government from purchasing ZTE or Huawei equipment and contracting with any entity that purchases such equipment.
"We urge you to heed the leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community, supported by a strong bipartisan consensus in the Senate, that we must pursue policies that prevent the widespread use of ZTE products in the U.S."
The Senators noted that at six of the United States' top intelligence leaders testified before Congress about the risks posed to U.S. national security by ZTE and another Chinese telecom equipment maker, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, which another state-owned firm. In addition, the country's top counterintelligence officer, Director of the National Counterintelligence Security Center Bill Evanina, testified that Chinese telecom companies such as ZTE and Huawei pose a significant threat to American security.
The top intelligence leaders that testified against ZTE during a Feb. 13, 2018 hearing at the Intelligence Committee were the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); National Security Agency (NSA); Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
"As you know, this is not a new threat," wrote Warner and Rubio. "Congressionally documented concerns date back to a 2012 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report on the serious counterintelligence concerns associated with ZTE equipment, the ties between the company and government, and the risks to American national security."
The senators noted that ZTE, while publicly traded, is a state-owned enterprise ultimately loyal to the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, which is run by communists. They emphasized that this "patronage relationship poses unacceptable risks to American sovereignty; risks that will only increase if the company is permitted to establish itself deeply in America's telecommunications infrastructure."
