The U.S. Department of Defense recently published a list of 20 companies that are fronts for Communist China’s military.
“As the People’s Republic of China attempts to blur the lines between civil and military sectors, ‘knowing your supplier’ is critical,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said. “We envision this list will be a useful tool for the U.S. Government, companies, investors, academic institutions, and like-minded partners to conduct due diligence with regard to partnerships with these entities.”
Beijing has been panned by the Pentagon and White House officials for forcibly expanding Communist Party influence under the guise of international trade. The country has been implicated many times over in intellectual property theft as well as compromising U.S. national security.
“This report is one piece of a broader campaign our nation must wage against the Chinese Communist Party and its parasitic technology transfer efforts,” Sens. Tom Cotton and Rep. Mike Gallagher stated. “We urge the President to impose economic penalties against these Chinese military firms. Meanwhile, Congress should update this 1999 law to better address the present-day challenges posed by China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy.”
Lawmakers have urged the Pentagon to release the names of more suspicious corporations. Many on the current list include obvious Chinese entities. But the outfit that has repeatedly been embroiled in controversy is telecom giant Huawei.
President Donald fTrump has been vocal about Huawei’s nefarious links to the Communist Party and the military. Members of Congress have also supported allegations that Huawei is a tool used by China’s Communist Party to steal intellectual property, particularly American technology.
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently refused to release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou while awaiting extradition to the U.S. According to reports, Huawei has direct links to the Chinese military. The tech outfit’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, worked as an information engineer for the People’s Liberation Army. After discovering ties to China’s military, the U.S. banned the organization from taking part in the 5G rollout. Many believe the company’s endgame includes influence and espionage.
President Trump has called for a complete “decoupling” of trade with China as a strategy to minimize its ongoing intellectual property theft and stem the tide on communist influence.
“The tide is turning toward trusted 5G vendors and away from Huawei. The world’s leading telecom companies — Telefonica, Orange, Jio, Telstra, and many more — are becoming ‘Clean Telcos,’” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. “They are rejecting doing business with tools of the CCP surveillance state, like Huawei.”
Experts estimate that China steals upwards of $600 billion annually and additionally practices currency manipulation. These corporations are often nothing but fronts to pilfer off American innovation and engage in corporate spying. The better informed U.S. business leaders are about communist infiltration, the better they can deter infiltration.
The list “is a start, but woefully inadequate to warn the American people about the state-owned and -directed companies that support the Chinese government and Communist Party’s activities threatening U.S. economic and national security,” Sen. Marco Rubio reportedly said.
