Senators Propose Plan To Block Huawei From U.S. Banks
A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled on Wednesday a plan to limit Chinese company Huawei's access to the US financial system.
"We can't give Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal information and our country's most sensitive defense systems," Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas told The Hill. "We must address the serious threat these Chinese companies pose to our national security."
A bipartisan group of Senators including Cotton, Rick Scott, R-Fla. Chuck Schumer, DN. Y. ; and Chris Van Hollen, Dr. Chris Van Hollen, negotiated legislation that would punish not only Huawei, but all "untrustworthy Chinese 5G manufacturers engaged in industrial espionage."
Specifically, lawmakers want the Treasury to add Huawei to the list of specially designated citizens.
"As part of its enforcement efforts, OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] publishes lists of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, destination countries," the Department of Finance website states. "It also lists individuals, groups and organizations, such as terrorists and drug dealers, designated under non-specific state programmes."
“Collectively, these individuals and entities are referred to as 'Specially Designated Nationals' or 'SDN.'
The proposal to label Huawei as SDN comes amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese technology companies and the threat they could pose to US security, partly through potential access to US user data that could theoretically end up in Beijing's hands.
Lawmakers on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to ban Chinese social media app TikTok in the United States. The social media video-sharing app, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, has long been under scrutiny over its handling of US user data and its ties to the Chinese communist regime.
