WASHINGTON—President Biden’s pick for Commerce secretary pledged a tough line against Chinese trade and technology threats, but stopped short of saying she would continue the Trump administration’s blacklisting of Huawei Technologies Co.
“We can’t have the Chinese or really anyone having a backdoor into our network and compromising in any way our national or economic security,” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said at her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday.
Referring specifically to Huawei, Ms. Raimondo said she would “use the full tool kit at my disposal…to protect Americans and our network from Chinese interference or any kind of backdoor influence into our network.”
But in response to questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Ms. Raimondo stopped short of endorsing specific actions taken against Chinese tech companies by the former administration. She declined to promise to maintain the Commerce Department’s blacklisting of Huawei, pending a review.
That prompted Sen. Cruz to say he hopes the new administration won’t “go easy” on China, as he said some have speculated.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said later in a statement: “This is ridiculous: Huawei didn’t change because America has a new president. Huawei is still the Chinese Communist Party’s tech puppet and a serious threat to national security. Tough talk on China is empty if you let Huawei out of the box.”
Former President Donald Trump issued orders to blacklist Huawei—cutting it off from American suppliers and banning it from doing business in the U.S.— on grounds that it was a security threat.
Huawei has repeatedly denied those allegations. Representatives of the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Ms. Raimondo’s comments reflected the Biden administration’s measured approach to addressing Chinese technology threats, after several years of aggressive attacks by Mr. Trump.
On the one hand, Mr. Biden remains “committed to stopping China’s economic abuses on many fronts,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.
She said the administration has launched reviews of Trump administration actions involving Chinese businesses, some of which have yet to be implemented or have been delayed by legal challenges.
Ms. Psaki said the administration is “starting from an approach of patience as it relates to our relationship with China.”
The impacts of that approach on specific Trump administration actions aren’t yet known, however. The Justice Department declined to comment Tuesday on whether it will seek a delay in some of the legal challenges against Trump executive actions, including one by Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, or drop its defense of them.
The Chinese Embassy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gov. Raimondo, a Democrat and former venture capitalist, said she would employ all the tools available to the Commerce Department, including trade sanctions, “to level the field for the American worker.”
No vote was taken immediately on Gov. Raimondo’s nomination, but Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) predicted she would soon win confirmation.
Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected]
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