Telecommunications company AT&T and Tucker Carlson are clashing over the information provided that the Fox News host presented where he called out the company for lobbying against possible U.S. government sanctions on a Chinese telecom partner.
AT&T wants to prevent China Telecom, a state government-owned firm, from being added to a U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List. The Chinese telecommunications company’s potential inclusion in the list will severely limit the trade relationships and blocks certain technology transfers between foreign entities and U.S. firms.
In the past, the Trump administration accused China Telecom of having Chinese military backing and aiding the ethnic cleansing of Uighur minorities in southern China. The telecommunications company also faces accusations of undermining U.S. national security interests in the region.
Using this information, Carlson accused AT&T and its CEO, John Stankey, of prioritizing “foreign interests over American interests” due to them lobbying against China Telecom’s inclusion on the Entity List.
“We were told China Telecom was set to be sanctioned because of its alleged support of human rights abuses by China’s government, and there are very many of those,” Carlson said.
“AT&T is a proud partner of China Telecom, has a joint venture with China Telecom. In a statement provided to this show, AT&T admitted that it does not want China Telecom on the entities list, citing ‘potential unintended consequences.'”
After the show aired, AT&T released a statement where they stated that the information presented by Carlson is misleading.
“Without a relationship with a licensed Chinese communications company, no non-Chinese provider can serve U.S. companies operating in China,” the AT&T statement noted. “In the absence of that, such support would be provided by a Chinese state-owned enterprise instead of AT&T or any other American company.” “We and other companies explained this to the Commerce Department and other government officials to inform their policy decision about potential unintended consequences of placing China Telecom on the entities list.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
