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| Science |
| House Intelligence Committee: Two Chinese Firms ‘National Security Threat’ |
| 2012-10-09 |
| Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE pose a security threat to the US, a congressional panel has warned after an investigation into the two companies. The House Intelligence report is highly critical of the two companies. "China has the means, opportunity and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes," the report says. "Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems." The intelligence committee also accused both companies of providing "incomplete, contradictory, and evasive responses to the Committee's core concerns" during their nearly year-long investigation. The two firms should be barred from any US mergers and acquisitions, according to a House Intelligence Committee report. The panel says the firms failed to allay fears about their association with China's government and military. The firms - among the world's biggest makers of networking equipment - denied the accusations in front of the panel. China's Foreign Ministry urged the US to "set aside prejudices" regarding the two firms. Huawei was started by Ren Zhengfei, a former member of the People's Liberation Army, in 1987. As the firm has grown to become one of the largest global players in the sector, fears about its ties with the Chinese military have frequently surfaced. Earlier this year, it along with ZTE, faced allegations that some of their equipment had been installed with codes to relay sensitive information back to China. ZTE is also facing accusations it sold US telecoms equipment to Iran, in breach of US sanctions. Telecoms giant Cisco on Monday ended its relationship with ZTE, Reuters reported, after its equipment was included in the Tehran deal. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #5 Many years ago, pre-9/11, I helped prepare some HPSCI responses and sat in on the briefings to a few staffers (not actual HPSCI members per se). They were a bunch of clueless, wet nosed, Ivy League parasites who had never pulled on a pair of boots and didn't bother masking their contempt for the Army. Their primary concerns appeared to focus around legal issues, not results. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-10-09 16:09 |
| #4 Add the House Intelligence Committee to that list of threats :-) |
| Posted by: Raider 2012-10-09 16:00 |
| #3 This ought to help Cisco (networking), lucent and Ericsson (backbone telecom hear especially LYE) |
| Posted by: Jineger Sninert8792 2012-10-09 14:25 |
| #2 Only two? Oh, well. I guess it's nice that these posturing politicians have finally grabbed any kind of a clue at all. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-10-09 11:19 |
| #1 China's Foreign Ministry urged the US to "set aside prejudices" regarding the two firms. How novel. Appears they've stumbled onto the race card. I hope the actions taken by the House Intelligence Committee do not dampen Huawei and ZTE's potential enthusiasm for campaign contributions to the Champ. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-10-09 05:25 |