Two leading US senators warned President Donald Trump's administration Thursday to not use Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei's access to the US market as a negotiating tool in trade talks with Beijing.

Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Mark Warner, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, echoed rising concerns Trump could water down an effective ban on Huawei equipment in order to secure a trade pact with China.

The United States has severely limited Huawei's access to the US market and US-made technology over the past two years amid fears that its equipment, especially that for the coming next-generation 5G wireless markets, could offer Chinese intelligence services a back door to US communications.

"Allowing the use of Huawei equipment in US telecommunications infrastructure is harmful to our national security," Rubio and Warner said in a letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

"In no way should Huawei be used as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations."

"Instead, the US should redouble our efforts to present our allies with compelling data on why the long-term network security and maintenance costs on Chinese telecommunications equipment offset any short-term cost savings."

The world's largest telecommunications supplier, Huawei has taken a strong lead in developing 5G network equipment, with a number of countries buying it.

The US intelligence community has sought to persuade key allies to eschew Huawei technology, but has not made public any evidence of how Huawei equipment could be compromised by Chinese intelligence.

On May 23, Trump suggested that Huawei's status could be part of his negotiations with China on resolving a grinding trade battle.

"Huawei is something that is very dangerous," he told reporters.

Nevertheless, he said, "it's possible that Huawei would be included in a trade deal" if an agreement is reached to end the escalating trade conflict.

Last week, China stepped up its counter-offensive, warning major US tech companies that they could be cut off altogether from the Chinese market if they roll back their sales of sensitive products to Chinese companies like Huawei.

Trudeau going to Washington to seek support in China row
Ottawa (AFP) June 13, 2019 –

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will pay a visit to the White House next week to discuss trade and ask President Donald Trump to lean on China to release two Canadians he says have been "arbitrarily detained," the government announced Thursday.

The June 20 visit will be his first to Washington since 2017, and will come after once-tense personal relations with Trump appear to have warmed.

"Ahead of the upcoming G20 Osaka Summit, the two leaders will discuss key global challenges, including China's wrongful detention of two Canadian citizens," Trudeau's office said in a statement.

Trump has ramped up his aggressive stance towards China in a bid to pressure Beijing to make a deal with Washington on trade.

Canada was dragged into the fray last December when it arrested a senior executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, during a flight stopover in Vancouver on a US warrant.

In a move widely seen as retaliation and described by observers as "hostage diplomacy," Beijing detained two Canadians — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor.

It later accused Kovrig of espionage and alleged that Spavor provided him with intelligence.

China has also sentenced two other Canadians convicted of drug trafficking to death and blocked Canadian agricultural shipments worth billions of dollars.

Ottawa responded by rallying a dozen countries to its side, including Britain, France, Germany and the United States, as well as the European Union, NATO and the G7.

Former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien, who last week offered to act as a special envoy to China in a bid to resolve the crisis, has reportedly urged Trudeau to simply cancel Meng's extradition case.

But Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland rejected the idea during a trip to Washington on Thursday, telling reporters: "You are a rule of law country, or you are not."

"It would set a very dangerous precedent for Canada to alter its behavior when it comes to honoring an extradition treaty in response to external pressure," she said, adding that it "could make all Canadians around the world less safe."

According to Trudeau's office, he and Trump will also discuss the pending ratification of a new three-way trade agreement with Mexico that was signed last November and will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The pair will also touch on outstanding trade irritants — notably US tariffs on imports of Canadian softwood lumber, and a proposal to boost US uranium production that could displace Canadian imports of the element used in warheads and as fuel in nuclear reactors.