Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined his Senate colleagues in urging Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to impose sanctions and take decisive actions against Huawei Cloud and other People’s Republic of China (PRC) cloud service providers for the threat they pose to U.S. national and economic security.
Huawei Cloud recently “launched its ‘Sky Computing Constellation’ in co-sponsorship with Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute (also known as ‘Spacety China’)”—an entity recently sanctioned by the Treasury Department for providing significant satellite imagery assistance to entities in the Russian Federation.
“Open-source information shows that Huawei Cloud and PRC-based cloud computing services not only pose a threat to U.S. national security and economic security, but also are increasingly engaging with foreign entities—in some cases sanctioned foreign entities—that are directly challenging the national security and economic security interests of the United States and our allies and partners. We urge you to use all available tools to engage in decisive action against these firms, through sanctions, export restrictions, and investment bans, and to further investigate PRC cloud computing service companies,” wrote the Senators.
In the letter, the Senators also implored officials from the Biden Administration to add Alibaba Cloud, which is popularly known to provide services to the PRC military, security, and intelligence services, to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and to the Treasury Department’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List).
“We are gravely concerned by Alibaba Cloud (Aliyu)—the cloud services arm of Alibaba, a ‘national champion’ company of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—having opened two cloud data centers in Santa Clara, California, in 2015—in the heart of Silicon Valley. These data centers reportedly provide a variety of cloud computing services that initially focused on PRC companies based in the U.S. and have gradually expanded services and products to international clients,” continued the Senators.
Joining Senator Cramer are Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
Click here to read the letter.