''I've said this before, and I believe it firmly. We should require any company that's doing business on the intelligence or defense side with the U.S. government to never do business in China,'' former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell told Newsmax.
''You should choose if you're going to work in the intelligence or defense space, whether you work for China and Chinese companies, communist China, or whether you work for the United States," he said.
Grenell also said he believes that President Joe Biden’s decision on Wednesday to withdraw a series of Trump-era executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of WeChat and TikTok, along with ordering the Commerce Department review of security concerns posed by those apps and others, is a mistake.
The former U.S. ambassador to Germany told Thursday’s ''The Chris Salcedo Show'' that he’s ''extremely troubled by the decision to allow TikTok to continue harvesting data in the United States. When you deal with Communist China — you don't have a choice you might think that you have — some sort of a joint partnership with that other entity and that you can block it off, but you are sadly mistaken.
''I don't believe that you can put up a firewall in between the information'' you post on the Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok and the Chinese government,'' he said. ''Your information goes straight into the hands of Communist China. There is no way to block it off.''
He also said he believes the Chinese government is extremely aggressive when it comes to obtaining leverage to be used against the United States.
''The lessons of COVID and the lessons of Wuhan are that they are aggressive in their [pursuit of] leverage against us,'' Grenell added.
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.