*By Justin Chermol* The newly appointed vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), said he is "absolutely" concerned that Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei poses a threat to national security in an interview on Cheddar Tuesday. "I do have that concern," Castro told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin. He noted that he helped push a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act last year to prevent government grants or loans being used to pay for Huawei services. The Department of Justice unsealed two separate indictments on Monday against the company and its CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December. The cases claim the company and its leaders attempted to steal trade secrets from rival T-Mobile, promised bonuses to employees in exchange for intel on competitors, and sought to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. "With China, our overarching strategy has to be to respect them when they compete, but also to stop them when they cheat," he said. Castro is particularly disturbed by prospect of Huawei lifting T-Mobile's technology for its own gain. "What you see with China is the outright theft of trade secrets and technology and then taking that technology, in this case from T-Mobile, and using it for the benefit of Chinese companies without ever doing any of the innovation or the hard work ー or spending the money in terms of research or development to understand it themselves," he said. The indictments may coincide with trade talks between the U.S. and Chinese officials, but Castro said that the meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday are unrelated to the charges leveled against Huawei. "We should be able to separate out some sort of cheating or malfeasance from what we do in terms of talking about trade," he said. For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-joaquin-castro-talks-mueller-probe-huawei-charges-and-more).

Share:
More In Politics
What To Do With America's Largest Confederate Monument?
Statues commemorating the Confederacy are being torn down across America as a result of racial unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But the largest monument in the country has been left out of the conversation: Stone Mountain monument in Georgia. The 42-foot-deep, 76-by-158 foot carving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson sits on the face of the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. Removing it could require bitter political debate and a year-long demolition. But for most, the racist history it represents is too hard to ignore.
Fed Sees Dim Economic Outlook as Virus Squeezes Economy
The Federal Reserve expressed concern Wednesday that the viral outbreak will act as a drag on the economy and hiring in the coming months and said it plans to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate pegged near zero.
Barr Condemns 'Rioters' in Much-Anticipated House Testimony
Attorney General William Barr is defending the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying “violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests” sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Load More