The smartphone maker to rival Samsung and Apple gets throttled in U.S.

Edward C. Baig | USA TODAY

Most of you have never heard of Huawei, though the Chinese smartphone maker is the third-largest in the world and has serious ambitions to take on Samsung and Apple in the U.S. Some U.S. government officials want to keep it that way and throttle Huawei’s plans.

At issue are long-simmering concerns that Chinese technology makers will allow their government to install technology that could spy on U.S. users.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that lawmakers are not only pressing AT&T to cut commercial ties with Huawei, but to also oppose plans by the giant telecom operator China Mobile to enter the U.S. market because of similar security concerns. China Mobile applied for a U.S. operator’s license in 2011.

Only a week earlier at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, took the stage expected to announce AT&T as the U.S. carrier partner for Huawei’s flagship Mate 10 Pro smartphone that is being released in the United States. The deal was scrapped at the last minute, supposedly related to the Trump administration’s hard line on Chinese investment in the U.S.

More: Huawei CEO: U.S. consumer loses from failure to ink phone deal with wireless carrier

Congressman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) introduced a bill last week called “The Defending U.S. Government Communications Act” which would prohibit the U.S. government from purchasing or leasing telecommunications equipment and/or services from Huawei and another Chinese firm ZTE.

And earlier this month, the U.S. government blocked the $1.2 billion sale of money-transfer service Moneygram to Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Representatives from AT&T, Huawei, and China Mobile did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.

For its part, ZTE issued a statement that said it "is committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates. ZTE takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously and remains a trusted partner to our US customers. To the best of our knowledge, there are no current customers which are from the U.S. government agencies, and furthermore ZTE has no plans to sell our network solutions to the U.S. government."

Americans can still buy an “unlocked” version of the Mate 10 Pro phone, which starts at $799 and will be sold through Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft, Newegg and B&H. The phone is compatible with the “GSM” networks operated by AT&T and T-Mobile. But though Huawei plans to spend more than $100 million this year and has hired "Wonder Woman" actress Gal Gadot as a brand ambassador, the absence of a U.S. carrier not only dashes its hopes of becoming a major player in the U.S, it could also give consumers pause.

Indeed, Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics, says going the "unlocked" route, leaves Huawei in the U.S. with “dry breadcrumbs.”

Citing two unnamed congressional aides, the Reuters report also indicated that lawmakers want AT&T to scuttle its collaboration with Huawei over standards for the next generation of wireless known as "5G" and to stop selling Huawei phones through AT&T's discount subsidiary Cricket Wireless.

During his remarks at CES, Huawei’s Yu said that the collapse of a deal “is a big loss for us and also for carriers but more for consumers.”

Huawei is trying to tamp down consumer concerns. In a statement last week, the company indicated that “privacy and security are always our first priority. We are compliant with the world's most stringent privacy protection frameworks... (and) have gained the trust of over 150 million customers in the past year alone, and now sell our devices through more than 45 of the top 50 global carriers.”

But in his own statement, Rep. Conaway, said that “Chinese commercial technology is a vehicle for the Chinese government to spy on United States federal agencies, posing a severe national security threat."

He claims the threat has remerged as "the Chinese government is reattempting to embed themselves into U.S. technology.”

In an interview with USA TODAY, Conaway added that the Chinese take a long-term, multi-generational view. "They're smart, they're aggressive, and they're not to be underestimated. I think all of us need to be concerned about the influences of the Chinese government on all those businesses."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, according to Reuters, said he did not know details of the commercial cooperation cases, but at a press briefing in Beijing said, "We hope that China and the United States can work hard together to maintain the healthy and stable development of trade and business ties."

Concerns over cybersecurity go beyond China. Last fall, Best Buy and Office Depot said they would no longer sell antivirus software made by Russia’s Kaspersky Lab after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using its software because of the company’s close ties to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter