US Lawmakers Tell Google It Shouldn't Work With China's Huawei

Some U.S. lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are criticizing Alphabet Inc's Google for working with Chinese tech giant, Huawei Technologies, saying it is a “security threat.”

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The group of lawmakers, which included Republicans Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Michael Conaway and Liz Cheney, as well as Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, condemned Google for not renewing “Project Maven,” an artificial intelligence project of the Pentagon.

“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,” a letter from the lawmakers to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said.

Google has not formally responded, but spokesperson Andrea Faville said that business relations with Huawei do not provide any special access to data.

“Like many U.S. companies, we have agreements with dozens of OEMs (manufacturers) around the world, including Huawei,” Faville said.

Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE Corp have become major players in the global telecommunications industry, supplying phones and other techs to previously under-reached global markets.

The United States government, however, has been less than thrilled. U.S. lawmakers have written several bills to prevent government agencies from using Chinese products, attempted to overturn President Donald Trump's agreement to end a ban on ZTE, and claimed that Chinese tech poses a threat to U.S. national security.

The battle over telecommunications comes in the midst of a larger saga surrounding the Trump administration initiated trade war, with U.S. imposed tariffs on China being met tit for tat.