Mike Baker, a former CIA officer and CEO of global intelligence firm Portman Square Group, recently appeared as a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Baker explained how the FBI investigated Huawei cell towers. He suggested that the Chinese government facilitated the use of Huawei equipment in U.S. regions that are home to military bases and ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) sites, hoping they would intercept sensitive information.
"The bureau (FBI) had a great report not that long ago – the culmination of years of investigation, and one of the things that they were doing was looking at the financial side of things," Baker said. "They started looking at Chinese companies – whether they were state-owned or whether they were theoretically private – but they had two or three cutouts between them and the state, and they were looking at their deals, and they were saying, 'Well, why would they do this?' And 'If it's a private company that's out there to make money and to be successful [and] grow, why would they be making deals that seem not profitable?'
"Aside from just acquiring assets, China, over the years, has acquired a massive amount of property and other assets here in the U.S. and around the world. A very clever part of their investigation from a bureau perspective is to say, 'Alright, let's look at a Chinese company like ZTE or Huawei and let's try to understand why would they possibly be giving away their products, basically, at dirt cheap prices? Why would they be interested in acquiring land in a particular area? Why would they want to work with a particular, regional telecoms provider here in the U.S.?' And when you do that, their activity becomes pretty clear, even to people who are skeptics.
"Huawei is now the largest producer of telecoms gear in the world. They do all the plumbing – they do the antennas, they do the routers, they do the servers. You look at a cell tower now anywhere in the Midwest or out west, and it's likely got Huawei or ZTE or other Chinese components on that cell tower. And one of the reports that the bureau came out with after a lengthy investigation ... looks at the I-25 corridor; it goes up Wyoming, Colorado, that area, along the border of Nebraska. They did a deal with a regional telecoms provider out there ... and they now have, over the years, they've put their equipment – Huawei has – onto these cell towers that go up and down these corridors. Well, the other thing that's up and down this corridor is a variety of military bases and an enormous number of ICBM sites for our nuke program.
"So, the idea that China was just willingly giving at vastly discounted prices their gear to a regional provider in part of the U.S. where we have an enormous number of ICBM sites ... it's a perfect example of what they do and how they're willing to invest state resources and how smart they are at long-term targeting and understanding, 'I want to know about this, that's where the information is, I'm going to get access to it, and I don't care whether it takes me 10, 20, 30 years.' It's a big deal."
The FBI conducted an investigation into Chinese companies purchasing land in the U.S. over the last several years, according to Wireless Estimator. The agency found that Huawei equipment in the Midwest "was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear weapons."
The investigation revealed a pattern of Huawei installing its equipment on cell towers located near U.S. military bases, even in cases where it was not profitable for the company. Multiple sources told CNN that despite denials from Huawei, "there's no question the Huawei equipment has the ability to intercept not only commercial cell traffic but also the highly restricted airwaves used by the military and disrupt critical U.S. Strategic Command communications."
Brendan Carr, FCC commissioner, expressed concern in 2019 over the cell towers' proximity to the 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles that are located near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
The U.S. government has expressed concerns over Huawei's potential to intercept sensitive information for years, but little evidence has been made public, Reuters reported.
"If Chinese companies like Huawei are given unfettered access to our telecommunications infrastructure, they could collect any of your information that traverses their devices or networks," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in 2020. "Worse still, they'd have no choice but to hand it over to the Chinese government, if asked."
The U.S. started to replace Chinese telecom equipment with equipment manufactured domestically, under the Trump administration, according to Politico. The cost of the project has slowed its progress. Almost 200 U.S. providers have equipment from Huawei or ZTE in their operations, ranging from rural wireless networks to universities and city governments. The U.S. government originally allocated $1.9 billion to subsidize companies working to replace their equipment, but the FCC reported in July that it will cost an additional $3.08 billion.
