I work for Huawei Technologies, a $28 billion, 120,000-person multinational telecommunications company based in China which provides information and communications technology solutions to 45 of the world's top 50 telecommunications service providers in over 140 markets across the planet.
While Huawei has made modest inroads in the U.S., due to concerns related to our Chinese heritage, our ability to do business in the U.S. has occasionally been challenged due to unspecified "national security concerns." Such concerns have never been substantiated and Huawei has never had the benefit of due process or to know or understand the charges against it or to otherwise defend itself.
On November 17, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee announced an investigation into whether China-based telecommunications equipment providers supplying solutions to U.S. operators might somehow facilitate espionage or threaten America's critical infrastructure. The Committee Chairman specifically named Huawei as a target of the investigation.
Network security concerns are very real, but, given that all telecommunications solutions from every vendor contain global - including Chinese - inputs and code, the concerns apply to each and every vendor. In this regard, the Intelligence Committee investigation offers a unique opportunity for an open, full and fact-based consideration of the threats presented by global supply chains, regardless of the integrator or end-solution provider. Indeed, such an approach will serve to foster true and non-political solutions to securing American networks, data, and communications service continuity, while preserving competition.
As your constituent <or, "as an American," if addressed to an Intelligence Committee Member not from your District>, I call on you to encourage the Committee to leverage the knowledge of a balanced representation of public and private sector experts on telecommunications, security, competition and trade, and to conduct its review in an impartial and transparent fashion towards a fact-based outcome.
Best regards
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