By Alexandra Alper
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. senators led by Marco Rubio on Thursday called on the Biden administration to blacklist Honor, a former unit of embattled Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, describing the firm as a threat to national security.
In a letter dated Thursday, seen by Reuters, Rubio described Honor as essentially an "arm" of the Chinese government with newly unfettered access the same prized U.S. technology currently denied to Huawei. The letter adds to a growing chorus of China hawks calling for the blacklisting.
By spinning off the Chinese telecom giant's budget smartphone brand in November 2020, "Beijing has effectively dodged a critical American export control," Rubio wrote in the letter also signed by Senators John Cornyn and Rick Scott.
"By failing to act in response, the Department of Commerce risks setting a dangerous precedent and communicating to adversaries that we lack the capacity or willpower to punish blatant financial engineering by an authoritarian regime."
Honor and the Department of Commerce in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Huawei declined to comment beyond noting a prior statement that said it would not hold any shares or be involved in managing Honor following the spinoff. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the U.S. had kept "smearing" Huawei without presenting solid evidence to support its accusations.
The Trump administration placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019, arguing the company posed a national security threat, which Huawei denies. Putting the company on the so-called entity list has meant its U.S. suppliers have had to obtain special licenses to sell key items like semiconductors to the firm.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was also barred from providing technical support to new Huawei phone models and access to Google Mobile Services, the bundle of developer services upon which most Android apps are based.
As sanctions against the company began to bite amid tighter controls, Huawei announced the Honor sale to a consortium of over 30 agents and dealers.
In August a group of 14 Republican Congressmen led by Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also called on the Commerce Department to blacklist Honor, alleging the company was spun off to evade U.S. export controls and to give Huawei access to blocked semiconductor chips and software.
On Monday, Honor said on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) https://twitter.com/Honorglobal/status/1447547538748280834 it had "succeeded in confirming cooperation with a number of supplier partners in the early stage" and that its Honor 50 smartphones would be equipped with Google Mobile Services.