Committee exchange follows Hagerty-led Senate letter to Biden Admin urging additional sanctions and export controls
WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, today implored Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to take further action against Huawei Cloud and other People’s Republic of China (PRC) cloud service providers that pose a threat to U.S. national security and economic security. The Hagerty-Raimondo exchange comes after Hagerty led his colleagues in a letter to Secretary Raimondo, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the Biden Administration to impose sanctions and additional export controls on Huawei and other China cloud services.
“The examples that we provide in the letter show that China’s military civil fusion strategy is alive and well. Given China’s laws that compel every Chinese citizen and Chinese company to assist in national security or intelligence work, it should be common sense to deny U.S. exports of these countries,” Hagerty said. “Yet companies like Alibaba Cloud that are not on the Entity List and still have access to U.S. technology and exports and even have operations here in the United States.”
“Given the far reach of China’s national security related laws and their military civil fusion strategy, do you agree that the PRC cloud service providers that operate in the United States pose a threat to our national and our economic security?” Hagerty asked.
“I’m in broad agreement with you,” said Secretary Raimondo.
“I’m going to strongly encourage you to take a hard look at the letter,” Hagerty responded. “These are companies that also should be included, and they pose, in my view, very significant risks.”
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