a
t it's one of the most powerful
conglomerates
in the world it's the largest
telecommunications company on the globe
it's also not incidentally the parent
company of cnn
that means a massive amount of america's
digital infrastructure depends
on cnn a massive amount if a t and its
ceo
john stanky decided to prioritize
foreign interests over american
interests
that would be grave news to every
american
we're learning tonight that at least one
instance that's exactly what a t and
john stanky did
we've confirmed that a t lobbied the
department of commerce
not to levy sanctions against china
telecom which is a large state-owned
corporation headquartered in beijing
this was first reported by the national
file specifically we know that at
t worked to keep china telecom off of
something called the entity list
that list blocks companies from selling
american products and technology
to certain foreign firms without first
getting a license
we're told that 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 u.s
officials have said that china telecom
is backed by the chinese military
and under control of the nation's
communist party and of course that makes
sense
a t is a proud partner of china telecom
has a joint venture with china telecom
in a statement provided to this show
a t admitted that it does not want china
telecom on the entities list
setting potential unintended
consequences
corey stewart is the former under
secretary of commerce for industry and
security
he has first-hand knowledge of what
happened and he joins us tonight to
explain corey stewart i appreciate your
coming on tonight
it's hard to believe that a t
an american you think of it as an
american company would lobby on behalf
of a company controlled by the chinese
military tell us if you would what you
know about this
and why it happened well you know i was
as i was under secretary
uh some it was very disturbing because
uh we had a lot of indications
uh there's very good intelligence out
there uh that uh
the chinese government through its it's
basically state-owned subsidiary
of china telecom has been using cell
phone technology telecommunications
technology
to track minority populations in china
to spy on them and then to hand this
information over to the china police
state
and they're rounding up the uyghur
population which is a minority muslim
group in western china as well as
tibetans and other minorities and
placing these
people in essentially modern day
concentration camps
where there's widespread reports of of
gang rapes of torture
other human rights abuses potentially
even executions
and genocide occurring in these camps
and china telecom was assisting
the government of china and helping to
do that when we learned of this we of
course in the trump administration
uh began to place china telecom on the
entity list to put sanctions upon them
when we were contacted by ed gillespie
the executive vice president
of atnt who urged us not to place
uh china telecom despite these abuses on
the entity list and
needless to say we were pretty much
shocked by that
why would john stanky the ceo of the
company i mean
a t has a lot of different businesses
it's a very successful company critical
company in
in the united states why would he
jeopardize
the image of a t by siding
with a company that is had a hand in
genocide in china
it doesn't make sense to me it it
doesn't make sense
unless you assume that despite
what cnn and its corporate parents say
about
protecting minorities and standing up
for human rights
if it's all a lie and what they're
actually doing is
placing profit over and above
human rights over and above u.s national
security concerns
and you know i have to say that att is
not alone
there are other u.s corporations in
china who are turning a blind eye
to the human rights abuses who are
turning a blind eye to china threatening
its neighbors in the south china sea who
are turning a blind eye to that
what they're doing is is helping the
china
uh undermine u.s national security
concerns
and that is uh something that we tried
in the trump administration
and we were on the verge of placing
china telecom
uh as well as other companies on the
entity list and let me just say this
the staff the career staff at the
commerce department we're clearly on a
path to do this
if it doesn't happen that will mean that
there was pressure from the biden
administration put on it by att
to not put them on there i look forward
to cnn covering the story in some detail
given that
often expressed concern for human rights
under secretary stewart i appreciate you
coming on tonight thank you
thank you