Huawei and ZTE are Chinese ‘snakes’ and must be banned from sensitive US university research, Republican lawmakers say
- A bill introduced by three Republican lawmakers would ban tech from China’s Huawei, ZTE and Russia’s Kaspersky from sensitive academic research
If Huawei, ZTE and Kaspersky are suspected of helping China and Russia spy on US government computer systems, they shouldn’t be allowed near sensitive academic research projects.
That’s the argument made by three Republican lawmakers who introduced a bill Tuesday that would bar researchers who work on many federally funded projects from using any technology from those companies – or from any other companies with close ties to the Russian or Chinese governments.
The goal is to ensure it’s just as hard for Russian and Chinese government-linked hackers to steal important US academic research as it is for them to steal government secrets, the bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Jim Banks said.
“Huawei and ZTE are snakes in the grass, tools of the Chinese government,” Banks said. “If we restrict their use for federal government purposes, we should restrict their use on college campuses as well for anything related to sensitive research.”