Last year, the media attacked Trump for targeting Huawei in an executive order.
The order was meant to set the stage to ultimately ban Huawei from the U.S.
Turns out Trump’s instincts were proven right… again.
The U.S. government has officially accused Huawei of spying on American businesses and citizens.
Fox News reports:
It's another privacy controversy involving Huawei, and this time the Trump Administration says it has proof the Chinese telecom giant has been spying on its customers - for years.
Huawei, a multi-billion dollar Chinese conglomerate and one of the biggest cell phone manufacturers in the world, is now being accused by multiple U.S. intelligence agencies of leaving back doors in their mobile phone equipment, and those back doors could be used to spy on users. According to an article that originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal, for more than a decade Huawei has built equipment that secretly preserves its ability to access networks through a process known as "lawful interception interfaces," which are generally used by law enforcement to tap into wireless networks for legal purposes. This access can give police and other officials valuable intelligence about criminals, terrorists, and human trafficking networks. But it also allows the telecom provider - in this case, Huawei - to access sensitive and personal information, and has allegedly done so since 2009.
U.S. officials have used their sternest language yet, accusing Huawei of "state sponsored" theft.
According to NBC News:
The U.S. officials — Robert Blair, special representative for international telecommunications at the White House; John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security; and Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary of state for cyber and international communications and information policy — used some of their toughest language to date in describing the threats they see from Huawei and China.
"We are so concerned about a lack of trust when it comes to the behavior of Chinese companies and the Chinese government itself," said Demers, whose division has brought dozens of cases involving intellectual property theft on behalf of China.
"What our cases have illustrated is a persistent, well-orchestrated, very top down, well-resourced effort to steal American and European intellectual property and the data of its citizens."
China, he said, is engaged in "outright state-sponsored, state-directed theft."
He described an "ecosystem of theft" by Chinese university students, researchers and companies that is designed to boost Chinese industry.
Strayer added a Chinese national intelligence law requires Huawei and all Chinese companies "to comply with the mandates of the security and intelligence services." Western governments have similar laws, but in China, he said, "there is no rule of law system there or independent judiciary — no checks and balances on the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to command Huawei or other companies to take actions" that would not be in the interest of Europeans or Americans.
"We want to make sure that whatever 5G becomes, it ensures freedom of speech, not the ability to censor messages which any government does not feel [are] supportive of their overall ideology," Blair said, adding that the U.S. wanted to make sure 5G could not be used to track dissidents, undermine freedom of assembly and steal personal data.
You know things are pretty serious when even Nancy Pelosi publically agrees with President Trump.
Pelosi has joined Trump in urging our European allows to avoid Huawei, warning about "back doors" that are designed for spying.
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