House Republicans now express concerns over new Chinese tech companies

Committee ranking member John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the top Republican on the panel’s cybersecurity subcommittee, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas highlighting concerns over the increasing Chinese threats in the information technology space, reports The Hill.

“The security of our nation’s information and communications technology (ICT) supply chain is critical to nearly every aspect of our lives,” Katko and Garbarino wrote as quoted by The Hill.

“Over the past several years, we have seen an alarming increase in threats to our ICT supply chain from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They have been engaged in a multi-decade effort to lie, cheat, and steal their way to global dominance, in part by compromising our ICT backbone.”

“Our committee remains concerned about how your respective departments plan to address new and emerging Chinese companies seeking to fill the Huawei void,” Katko and Garbarino wrote. “We simply cannot allow more nefarious Chinese ICT products to enter U.S. markets.”

The Republicans even zeroed in on Chinese electronics group Xiomi which is known for manufacturing laptops and smartphones.

Katko and Garbarino noted they were “alarmed” at the potential for the company to fill the “Huawei void” in the United States.

“We share grave concerns that Xiaomi poses a significant threat to the privacy of any of its users through its lineup of smartphones, laptops, smart watches, and other consumer-facing products,” the lawmakers wrote. “In many ways, data has become the modern-day currency of homeland security and we must take threats to the data integrity of the free world seriously.”