A group of nine Republican senators wrote a letter to Biden officials, raising security concerns about Chinese cloud firms like Huawei Cloud and Alibaba Cloud and asking for strict measures against them to protect U.S. interests and assets.
The April 25 letter (pdf), led by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), expressed “deep concern” about Chinese cloud computing companies.
“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,” the letter said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Huawei was added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s “Entity List” trade blacklist in May 2019. Huawei Cloud joined the list in August 2020 as the department found “reasonable cause to believe” that the company was or will become involved in activities that harm American interests.
The letter cited a December 2021 report by The Wall Street Journal, which revealed that Huawei Cloud used its technologies to aid the Chinese communist regime to “identify individuals by voice, monitor political dissidents, manage ideological reeducation and labor schedules for prisoners, and help retailers use facial recognition to track shoppers.”
That same month, Huawei launched its “Sky Computing Constellation” in partnership with Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute, also known as Spacety China, and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT).
In January this year, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Spacety China and its subsidiary in Luxembourg for offering satellite imagery of certain Ukrainian locations to a Russian entity, the letter noted.
Meanwhile, BUPT is home to two defense labs that conduct research on cyberattacks for the Chinese military, it said. BUPT was added to the “Entity List” in December 2020 for providing aid to the Chinese military regarding advanced weapons.
“In light of this, we, therefore, urge you to impose sanctions on Huawei Cloud under existing authorities for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of recently-sanctioned Spacety,” the letter said.
Alibaba Cloud Ties With Chinese Military
Another Chinese firm cited in the letter in detail is Alibaba Cloud. The letter called the company opening two cloud data centers in Santa Clara, California, in 2015 “gravely” concerning.
“These data center[s] 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,” the letter said.
Alibaba Cloud provides services to the Chinese military, security, and intelligence, the senators pointed out. In 2017, the company signed a “military-civil fusion” (MCF) cloud cooperation agreement with a state-owned company.
In 2018, the vice president of Alibaba Cloud spoke at an event hosted by the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences (AMS), where experts discussed ways to transition the benefits and technologies of e-commerce to national defense.
The letter asked Washington to add Alibaba Cloud to the “Entity List” and deny license applications from U.S. companies seeking to export to the Chinese firm.
“U.S. companies should not be aiding Alibaba Cloud with exported U.S. technology,” it said.
The senators also want Alibaba Cloud to be added to the “Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List” (NS-CMIC List) of Chines firms involved in the military-industrial complex.
“We ask that you further investigate and act against China’s other cloud service providers—including those not mentioned in this letter, such as Baidu Cloud and Tencent Cloud—and their direct or indirect operations in the United States that negatively impact our national security and foreign policy interests.”
The letter was addressed to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In August 2020, the Trump administration issued a warning against Chinese cloud service providers, including Alibaba.