Inside Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that's rattling nerves in DC
Chen Lifang is a bit flummoxed.
Chen is a board member and senior vice president at Huawei, the giant telecommunications gear maker based here. She's digesting news that broke a day earlier that the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has ratcheted up the pressure it's putting on the company to disclose details about its ties to the Chinese government. The bombshell came in the form of a letter, released to the media, from the committee chairman and the ranking Democrat to Huawei founder and chairman Ren Zhengfei
Really, the letter was more of an 11-page laundry list of accusations, wrapped around questions about everything from funding the company has allegedly received from the Chinese government to queries about how board members got their posts. In the letter, Congressmen Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said they were investigating "the threat posed to our critical infrastructure and counter-intelligence posture by companies with potential ties to the Chinese government."