Senate Judiciary Leaders Raise Concerns About US Allies' Policies on Chinese 5G Gear

The hearing happened the same day Huawei Chairman Liang Hua said during an event in London that the manufacturer is willing to sign a “no-spy agreement” with the British government in a bid to secure its ability to deploy 5G equipment into non-core elements of the country's telecom apparatus. The U.S. has been urging the U.K. to fully ban Huawei from its 5G infrastructure and British cybersecurity officials recently issued a report critical of that company (see 1904030004).

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., acknowledged not being overly familiar with 5G issues. The technology is “something I am by no means an expert on but very curious about,” Graham said. Both leaders said they were concerned about the 5G dominance of Huawei and other companies with ties to that country's government. "We need to up our 5G game, because if there's nobody other than China, we've got a problem,” Graham said.

Feinstein questioned whether the U.S. should allow 5G deployments to proceed while there's uncertainty about the security of related components of the nation's telecom infrastructure. “I begin to question the whole 5G thing because it creates a situation that can be used to do tremendous harm,” she said. “This is a very big deal because it could make our country incredibly vulnerable and we cannot let China do this.”

Graham pressed Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State-Cybersecurity and International Communications and Information Policy Robert Strayer to say whether it is U.S. policy not to connect with its allies' telecom networks or share information with them unless they bar Chinese companies' 5G equipment. U.S. policy “is that the criteria we are asking foreign governments to meet can never be met” by the Chinese government under its current policies, Graham later told reporters. “Until China stops being a communist dictatorship, we are not going to support working with a country that uses their technology.”

Strayer said it's “not our goal” to put China's 5G efforts out of business, while Krebs said that's “not an economic reality.” Graham said he would be “fine with that being the outcome” given concerns that Huawei and other China-backed companies are deliberately allowing vulnerabilities into their equipment that would allow China to conduct espionage and IP theft. Some countries “just don't have an alternative” to Chinese 5G equipment because the government's backing of those companies allows them to provide significant discounts on equipment, Krebs said. “What we're talking about is a global supply chain challenge.”

“It is a bad day for China in this hearing room” but “only in this hearing room because our pounding the table is not having an effect” on efforts to convince U.S. allies to not use Chinese equipment, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He was surprised the U.K. and other allies aren't fully recognizing the risk of using Chinese equipment given the U.S. has known about the threat for years.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said it's important the U.S. tell allies there are “significant long-term” costs to using Chinese equipment that outweigh the discounts Huawei and others offer. “If they go with Huawei equipment, they are giving the Chinese control of their information distribution system and an insight into everything they are going to do,” she said. “That’s going to be a very expensive cost for them” once they begin needing to patch vulnerabilities.

Blackburn and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., separately filed legislation Tuesday aimed at addressing 5G supply chain concerns. Blackburn's Sharing Urgent, Potentially Problematic Locations that Yield Communications Hazards in American Internet Networks (Supply Chain) Act would direct the secretary of commerce to coordinate with the heads of other federal agencies and conduct reviews of the information and communications tech marketplace's supply chain, her office said. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, co-sponsored the bill. Blackburn at the hearing highlighted both the Supply Chain Act and Cornyn's Secure 5G and Beyond Act (S-893), which would require the president develop a strategy for ensuring security of 5G networks and infrastructure. NTIA would be the lead implementer (see 1903270065).

Hawley's China Technology Control Act would place all “core technologies” that China identified in its Made in China 2025 strategy on the Commerce Department's export control list, meaning companies must obtain license to export those technologies to China. The bill would allow the U.S. to impose sanctions on foreign entities and individuals that violate those export controls by transferring technology to China, Hawley's office said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., meanwhile, urged the FCC to press forward on work to make spectrum available for 5G commercial use, including the pending December auctions of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands. “Mid-band spectrum offers favorable signal range and indoor penetration combined with increased capacity that comes from frequency reuse; this makes mid-band spectrum particularly important for the initial deployment of 5G,” the lawmakers wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “This is especially the case in America’s rural areas.”