Baicells, a Chinese firm founded by Huawei alumni, requires scrutiny: US lawmakers

WASHINGTON - Baicells, a Chinese maker of telecommunication hardware founded by veterans of sanctioned Huawei Technologies that has equipment operating in every American state, needs rigorous scrutiny by the US government, the top Republican on the House Select Committee on China said.

"The presence of this company - or any company with known cyber vulnerabilities in their products - anywhere in the US should raise significant national security alarms," John Moolenaar said in a statement.

"The Chinese Communist Party is relentlessly pursuing efforts to export its oppressive surveillance state, and companies like Baicells, despite their claims of security, must be scrutinised rigorously."

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Sun Lixin, the Beijing-based chairman of Baicells Technologies, said in a statement that even the largest software, hardware and mobile phone makers would never issue a statement claiming their products "have no security vulnerabilities."

"That's precisely why all commercial companies keep releasing updates to ensure that they can keep up with the fixing of discovered vulnerabilities," he added.

Baicells previously said in a statement that it does not believe its base stations present security risks and that it is willing to cooperate with any US inquiry.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement that "Beijing hopes the US will respect the principles of market [economics] and fair competition, stop unreasonably suppressing companies from other countries, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for companies from all countries to invest and operate in the United States."

Baicells has provided base stations and routers to more than 700 networks across the US, including in sensitive locations close to military installations, Reuters recently reported.

Its firmware has been flagged for cyber-vulnerabilities by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a watchdog, and the company is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Commerce Department over national security concerns, Reuters has reported.

The scrutiny of Baicells comes amid growing concerns in Washington about China's ability to intercept sensitive data by hacking into telecoms networks, remotely accessing hardware supplied by Chinese companies or providing Americans with internet access.

US networks have been targeted by a wide variety of state-backed hacking groups around the world, including a high-profile Chinese group dubbed "Volt Typhoon", according to US officials.

"Companies with ties to foreign adversaries like China, who are intent on exploiting vulnerabilities in our telecommunications networks for espionage, are a dangerous and growing threat to our national security," said Democratic congressman Frank Pallone, who serves as ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

"I look forward to hearing from the national security agencies investigating Baicells, so we can continue to root out these hostile actors and protect the integrity of our critical infrastructure," he said.

His remarks echoed comments made by Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who took aim at the American approach to addressing such threats.

While recent high profile Chinese attacks on US telecoms networks hinged on breaches of poorly secured Western equipment, "allowing [China]-linked suppliers into our supply chains and not exercising the necessary scrutiny is counterproductive," he said. "The whack-a-mole approach, focusing on the national security risks posed by a single company at a time, is not nimble enough to respond to the threats that we are seeing."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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