Five congressmen have signed a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai to express their “concerns” over the tech giant’s partnership with the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies. Huawei runs Google’s operating system, Android, on its phones. The lawmakers penned their letter soon after Google ended its partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense.
The letter, which was signed by four Republicans and one Democrats, says, “We write to express our concerns about Google’s ‘strategic partnership’ with Huawei Technologies. Chinese telecommunications companies, such as Huawei, have extensive ties with the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, this partnership between Google and Huawei could pose a serious risk to U.S. national security and American consumers.”
In the letter, the lawmakers claimed they want Google to “reconsider” working with Huawei, particularly in light of the company’s decision to stop working with the U.S. Department of Defense. The letter also accused Google of being more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party over the U.S. military:
We urge you to reconsider Google’s partnership with Huawei, particularly since your company recently refused to renew a key research partnership, Project Maven, with the Department of Defense. This project uses artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of U.S. military targeting, not least to reduce civilian casualties. While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military.
As CNBC described, Huawei is the “third-largest smartphone maker in the world by market share” and allows consumers to use Google’s Android on their devices.
“Huawei is one of China's largest technology companies producing consumer electronics alongside its core telecommunications equipment business,” CNBC wrote.
Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville told Reuters, “Like many U.S. companies, we have agreements with dozens of OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, including Huawei. We do not provide special access to Google user data as part of these agreement, and our agreements include privacy and security protections for use data.”
The letter was signed by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton, Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican Reps. K. Michael Conaway, Liz Cheney, and Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger.
