Promoting United States International Leadership in 5G Act of 2019

Floor Speech

I rise today in support of my Promoting United States International Leadership in 5G Act of 2019, which I am pleased to introduce with my good friend, Mr. Cuellar, who is also from the great State of Texas.

Texas is home to many leading technology and communication companies and is an innovation hub.

Cutting-edge technology like 5G holds the promise to create millions of jobs and add hundreds of billions of dollars to the United States' economy.

The standards which are set at international bodies, such as the ITU and the 3GPP, are critical to the future of 5G. They establish a uniform criterion across devices, markets, and more.

For example, standards are the reason that your USB memory stick fits into any USB port on any device. And for years, these standards were adopted on merit.

However, over the last few years, China has been using coercive and underhanded tactics at international bodies to adopt Chinese technology in 5G standards. These efforts unfairly benefit Chinese companies and empower the Communist Party of China.

The 2018 report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission states that: ``The Chinese Government is encouraging its companies to play a greater role in international 5G standards organizations to ensure they set global standards; such leadership may result in higher revenues and exports from internationally-accepted intellectual property and technology and more global influence over future wireless technology and standards development.''

My bill will ensure the U.S. maintains and, in some cases, increases leadership at the international standards-setting bodies.

Specifically, it creates an international working group to provide assistance and technical expertise to enhance our representation and leadership at these bodies.

Additionally, my bill will create strategies for increasing engagement with our allies, partners, and the private sector. These strategies will help increase the United States' leadership in the global race to develop and deploy 5G and future generations of mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure.

Finally, my bill will provide an assessment of Chinese activities at those international bodies. This assessment will help us to ensure that the standards-setting bodies are not unduly influenced to adopt standards that unfairly advantage Communist Party of China connected and supported companies like Huawei.

China seeks to control critical industries and infrastructure by making them reliant on Chinese technologies. These Chinese companies are beholden to the laws and regulations in China that demand cooperation with Chinese intelligence services. The free flow of information and security of a country's data cannot be guaranteed using Communist Party of China supplied technology.

There are credible reports of China taking advantage of network equipment supplied by its companies for intelligence advantage that date back almost 2 decades.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, it is imperative that the United States leads at these standards-setting organizations so we are not beholden to Communist Party of China controlled technologies that will severely impact the freedoms and securities that we value here in the United States.

I will say the war on 5G is on, and some would argue in the IC that we are losing that war, and we need to compete with China, and we need to win. I think this bill will go a long way towards the United States taking the lead and backing the Communist Chinese Party from its intelligence service data collection. I urge support of the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Taylor).

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

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Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, for decades China has been infiltrating the United States, espionage, intellectual property theft. I know the issue today is Iran, but when I asked the Secretary of State what the greatest threat to the United States is long term? It is China.

We have to compete with China. We can say they are a bad actor, but we have to compete. And when it comes to artificial intelligence, to quantum computing, and yes, to 5G, if we can't compete, we lose long term, and the next generation is counting on us to win this race.

Madam Speaker, if you look at the global map, they are moving from 4G to 5G in almost 50 percent of the globe now. What happens when the Chinese come into a developing nation and plant their cheap telecommunications into the ground? They suck all the country's data. They steal all the data, and they do it because, long term, they want to dominate.

We have to compete with this. We have to win. This is equivalent to when we had a space race to the Moon. This is equivalent to that race. It is a digital space race, a digital space race against the Chinese to win against espionage, to win against theft of intellectual property, and to win for the American people.

I thank Ms. Spanberger for working with my office on this important measure. She is very involved in the 5G issue, and I applaud that. Being from the intelligence community, she knows how important this is.

It is refreshing to have a bipartisan moment in this Chamber. I think that is what most Americans want us to be doing right now. I look forward to the passage of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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