Warner: ‘China Has Been Flooding the Zone’ to Control Rulemaking Bodies and Has Had Success

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) stated that China “has been flooding the zone” to influence international bodies that make rules and standards on technology and communications and has had success in doing so.

Warner said, “First of all, many of the standard-setting bodies are like mini U.N.s and China has been flooding the zone. Again, I say this as an old telecom guy, it blew my mind that you not only had a Chinese company in wireless, Huawei, but also that China was setting the rules and regulations and protocols. A lot of that was because these international standard-setting bodies, China does try to gain influence by their Belt and Road Initiative. I do think most of the countries, though, that have taken this Chinese help are, frankly, reluctant at this point, because they see that China comes in and promises lots of jobs, and instead, they bring in Chinese labor. Oftentimes, the products are not very good and the infrastructure’s not very good in a lot of places. These countries have now ended up in immense debt to China. So, I think China has customers, it doesn’t have allies. And some of those customers are, I think, pretty unhappy, based upon some of the Belt and Road Initiatives of the past.”

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