Ash Carter, defense secretary under President Barack Obama, praised the Trump administration's blacklist of certain products from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei over national security concerns.

Carter made the comments the same day the administration announced some relaxations of its restriction on American companies doing business with Huawei.

"We've got to stick up for ourselves. China is a communist dictatorship," Carter said during a Tuesday talk at the Council on Foreign Relations. "And I'm not out to change them, but when they come to the business scene, they bring a combination of political, military, and economic tools that societies like ours don't posses. And we need to protect our companies and protect our friends and allies against what is inherently an uneven playing field."

Officials and observers warn that Huawei's connections to the Chinese government raise serious national security concerns, especially with regards to the company's dominance of the 5G equipment market. A just-released study found those links might be even deeper than thought, with some Huawei employees linked "to specific instances of hacking or industrial espionage conducted against Western firms."

Huawei's 5G equipment is significantly cheaper than that of its American and European competition, due in part to Chinese government subsidies, leaving countries to choose between building an economical modern communications network and protecting data privacy.

The Trump administration barred American companies from doing business with the Chinese tech giant in May, placing Huawei on the Bureau of Industry and Security's entity list. “This will prevent American technology from being used by foreign owned entities in ways that potentially undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.

Ross announced Tuesday the administration would make exceptions to that designation and allow U.S. companies to buy Huawei equipment "where there is no threat to national security."

In addition to 5G equipment, Huawei is also one of the largest distributors of mobile handsets, making it a major revenue source for U.S. microchip manufacturers. The Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents companies like Intel and Qualcomm, lobbied the administration to ease the restrictions.

Though American companies can now apply for licenses to purchase from Huawei, Ross said the Chinese company will remain on the entity list.

Carter noted that the expectations of many Western observers in the 1990s that China would become more like a normal nation-state — a "big France" — were wrong. He said the United States needs a better strategy for its complicated relationship with Beijing, arguing that Trump's tariffs on their own are not sufficient.

"It seems to be one instrument and not an orchestra," said Carter.

The blame is not Trump's alone, Carter added, pointing out that policymakers have not offered up a new plan. "I see us still scratching for a playbook," he said. "Which is intrinsically hard for a country like ours, because we can't just decide this is the playbook like you can do in China."