Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday said NATO allies should not allow Chinese tech firm Huawei into their cellular networks, warning of the potential privacy threats from allowing such access.
Allowing Huawei to integrate into European 5G networks, Pelosi said, would equate to “having the state police, the Chinese state police, right in your pocket,” The Associated Press reported.
“While some people say that it’s cheaper to do Huawei — well yeah — it’s a People’s Liberation Army initiative using reversed engineering from Western technology,” Pelosi told reporters while in Brussels.
“So, of course it’s going to be cheaper to put on the market. And if it’s cheaper, then they get the market share and then they [China] bring in their autocracy of lack of privacy,” she added. “You cannot sell the privacy of the people of your country down the river.”
The Trump administration has also lobbied allies to bar Huawei from their wireless networks, warning it could allow the Chinese government access to their data, which Huawei has denied.
Despite the warning, the British government has announced it will allow Huawei to build part of the country’s 5G network, prompting a group of House Republicans to introduce a resolution denouncing the United Kingdom’s decision.
“Huawei equipment is absolute poison — providing them access to any aspect of a 5G network compromises the integrity of the entire system and will result in network data being sent back to Communist Party leaders in Beijing,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.