Chris Van Hollen: “I thank the Senator from Florida, and I thank him not only for his leadership on the specific issue that was in the…”

“I thank the Senator from Florida, and I thank him not only for his leadership on the specific issue that was in the Defense authorization bill regarding ZTE but also for his leadership on the broader issue of protecting the United States against the grand theft of our technology by China and the risks that China poses to our national security in many areas. I want to review what happened with respect to ZTE, which is a Chinese telecommunications company. No. 1, for many years, they have been about the business of stealing technology from American companies. If you look at lawsuits and patent lawsuits filed over the last decade, you will see it has been grand larceny. We have a Chinese telecommunications company that has been ripping off U.S. companies in order to gain a market advantage, and they have been doing that in coordination and cooperation with the Government of China. They are stealing our technology. What are they using it for? Well, they are a big telecommunications company. We heard testimony from the Director of the FBI, and we heard testimony from the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies that they pose an espionage threat to the United States. All of them have said that it would be a great danger to our national security and the privacy of millions of Americans to let them anywhere near our telecommunications networks. First, they steal our technology. Second, they plan to use a lot of what they stole from us to spy on us.…”