Tony Podesta was paid $1 million to lobby for the change.
QUICK FACTS:
- The White House discreetly relaxed Trump-era prohibitions on the transfer of American technology to companies that have been blacklisted for having ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
- Included in the change were exports to Huawei, a telecommunications firm that has extensive links to the CCP.
- Huawei will now be able to receive technologies from American companies again, after being labeled a “national security threat” by the Trump administration.
- The company was labeled as a threat by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) due to years of collaboration with the Chinese military.
- The company paid lobbyist Tony Podesta a million dollars to facilitate the change that would allow them to receive American technology.
WHY HUAWEI WAS BLACKLISTED:
- At the time that the DOD put Huawei on the blacklist, they emphasized that it was due to their policy to allow access to their products, devices, and networks to the CCP.
- According to the State Department, the CCP uses Huawei as an “instrument not only for making money but also for pursuing the Party-State’s agenda and fulfilling its strategic objectives […] deeply enmeshed in Beijing’s system of oppression at home and its increasingly assertive strategic ambitions globally.”
BACKGROUND:
- Earlier this year it was reported that the firm hired Tony Podesta on a seven-figure contract to represent the firm’s interests with the Biden White House.
- Tony Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, who was the former White House counsel to President Barack Obama.
- John Podesta also served as the chairman of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid and is currently the head of the left-wing Center for American Progress.
- John Podesta is also close to members of the Biden administration.
- Huawei also appears to have strong firm ties with the World Economic Forum.
