Several members of Congress are posing questions about the relationship between Google, Huawei, and other Chinese companies.
Senator Mark Warner, a democrat who serves on the Senate Select Committie on Intelligence, has sent Google a letter with a request for information about its relationship with Huawei. Google confirmed that it received the query and said it “[looked] forward to answering these questions.”
Warner sent a similar letter to Twitter.
Mike Conaway, a republican congressman, indicated his office is making similar inquiries. Some in Congress see Huawei as a national security threat due to its ties with the Chinese government. Earlier this year, Huawei saw smartphone distribution deals with AT&T and Verizon evaporate after pressure from Congress.
Later this summer the Senate Intelligence Committee expects to hear directly from Google executive Larry Page, as well as Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey over their relationships with Huawei and other Chinese firms.
“The possibility of Chinese vendors with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party having access to Facebook’s private API (and potentially Alphabet’s) — particularly as China develops tools to harness individual-level data for surveillance and social control — raises serious national security concerns,” said a portion of Warner’s letter.
Huawei denies that it represents any type of threat. It is the third-largest maker of phones in the world and uses Google’s Android operating system.
