US legislators have long been worried about the so-called security risks that Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE may pose to the U.S. government. To this end, the Texas State Senator Mike Kena Wei (Mike Conaway) last week proposed a project called “Defending U.S. Government Communications Act” aimed at prohibiting US government agencies use the company’s mobile phones and devices.
Conaway’s proposal will forbid the U.S. government to buy and use “communications equipment or services” from Huawei and ZTE. In a statement published on its Web site, Conaway said that the technological future of these vendors threatens U.S. national security and believes using these devices will monitor every aspect of our lives.
The new proposal will pose another headache for Huawei, whose sudden aborting of its partnership with AT&T last week prompted the company’s CEO to make a speech at CES. Under the agreement, the company will be able to sell its new flagship Mate 10 Pro handset in the United States via AT&T. The New York Times reported that the partnership between the two companies caused censorship by U.S. legislators who sent a letter to the FCC in December about their concerns.
Conaway’s new proposal is part of a growing trend by the United States toward foreign software and hardware. Last summer, the chiefs of the six intelligence agencies in the United States told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they were worried about the security products from Kaspersky Lab while the CNN issued new guidance on the Russian company’s products, there is a potential link with the Russian government.
Reference: androidcentral
