Obama’s Pentagon Chief Backs Trump Limits on Working With Huawei

(Bloomberg) -- Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he backed efforts to blacklist Huawei Technologies Co. over national security concerns, saying it’s reasonable to prevent U.S. companies from working with the Chinese firm.

The Trump administration says Huawei technology could give China’s government a backdoor to eavesdrop on sensitive communications and that Chinese law exposes the company to interference by the government in Beijing, accusations that Huawei rejects.

Carter, who was President Barack Obama’s final secretary of defense, dealt with concerns about the security of Huawei products during his time leading the Pentagon from 2015-2017. But actions against the company have accelerated during the Trump administration, which has led a global campaign to bar Huawei from new 5G communications networks and blocked it from selling equipment into the U.S.

“When they come to the business scene they bring a combination of political, military and economic tools that societies like ours don’t possess,” Carter said Tuesday during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “We need to protect our companies and our friends and allies against what is inherently an uneven playing field.”

Carter also weighed in on other regional hot spots including tensions with Iran, the NATO alliance and Trump’s meetings with North Korea’s leader.

Iran

Amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, Carter said that the Islamic Republic is in “no position of military strength” to go to war but that the danger of an accidental confrontation is rising.

“The risk in the U.S.- Iranian situation today is something unintentional,” Carter said. “We’re up against each other so close there in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, and there isn’t enough of an anchor if something flares up.”

NATO Alliance

Pressed on whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- most of whose members the U.S. president has criticized for not spending enough on defense -- could sustain a second Trump term, Carter said he isn’t concerned.

“There’s more ballast in this system than people know,” Carter said.

Carter did express concern about the likely demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia without a replacement in place. But he also agreed with the Trump administration that the treaty -- designed to keep medium-range missiles out of Europe -- limited U.S. options to counter China, which isn’t a party to the accord and has been stockpiling the weapons.

North Korea

On North Korea, Carter said the he doesn’t object to the Trump administration’s talks with the regime in Pyongyang but added that he would have advised the president against meeting with Kim Jong Un without a significant agreement readied between the two sides.

Referring to his time in government dating back to the 1990s, when North Korea was led by Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung, Carter said every president he worked under viewed a meeting with the country’s leaders as a prize to be leveraged.

"For an American leader to meet a North Korean leader was a gift to North Korea," Carter said. "If you’re in a negotiation with somebody you don’t give anything for free."

To contact the reporter on this story: Jarrell Dillard in Washington at jdillard11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, ;Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert

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