US President Donald Trump has nominated Robert Blair to be the special representative for international telecom policy and work on the White House-propelled 5G project. Separately, Blair will continue his current work as an assistant to the president and senior adviser to the White House Chief of Staff, per the administration.
As the administration aide, Blair earlier defied a subpoena from a House of Representatives committee that came as part of the Trump impeachment proceedings in the lower congressional chamber, which voted to impeach Trump’s and have now transferred the case to the Senate.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has in his turn, called for Blair to testify in the Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial, but the majority leader, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, has dismissed the demand as irrelevant.
The official’s expected role in the 5G efforts comes amid a US-instigated anti-Huawei campaign, aimed at halting cooperation between the Chinese telecom giant, which pioneered 5G, and US allies likewise interested in the project.
Washington has been going to great lengths to convince international allies to exclude the firm from their 5G networks, over concerns the company may spy on its customers at Beijing’s behest – something that both Huawei and officials in Beijing have vehemently denied.
In May, citing a national security threat, the Trump administration blacklisted the company, barring firms that produce goods in the US from doing business with Huawei and supplying it with the electronic equipment they make. Despite the push, European companies and governments have been cooperating with Huawei on building 5G. Meanwhile, the US Commerce Department, vice versa, is floating the idea of further toughening export restrictions on the second-largest smartphone manufacturer.
US political life has of late been fully dominated by the impeachment process against Donald Trump, who is alleged to have abused power when he asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate the former Vice President and his current Democratic rival, Joe Biden, over his and his son’s purportedly corrupt dealings in Ukraine.
Trump dubbed the impeachment, which was voted for by the House floor last week, “a new round of witch-hunt garbage” aimed at distracting from the burning political agenda and especially timed to coincide with 2020 political campaigns.
