Lawmakers in the US have introduced a bill that will restrict Huawei and other Chinese 5G providers from accessing US banks.

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Republican senator Tom Cotton with backing from the Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. The bill makes it explicitly clear that it is looking to “severely sanction” Huawei, branding it and other similar Chinese tech firms as “untrustworthy”.

The bill goes on to argue that Chinese 5G producers are engaging in economic espionage against the US.

It will now be added to the Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List which freezes listed companies out of the US financial system. Other names on the SDN List include Russian president Vladmir Putin and Syrian president Bashar al Assad.

In a statement made on Tuesday, Cotton said: "We've made great strides in recent years at home and abroad in combating Huawei's malign attempts to dominate 5G and steal Americans' data. We cannot allow Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Americans' personal data and our country's most sensitive defense systems.”

Responding to the measures, the Chinese foreign ministry stated: "China firmly opposes the U.S.'s generalisation of the concept of national security, (and its) abuse of state power to suppress Chinese enterprises.”

The country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that China would “firmly safeguard” the rights and interest of Chinese companies.

This is the latest US attempt to curb Huawei’s access to banks in the country, with a similar bill proposed during the presidency of Donald Trump in 2020. In November, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules banning new telecommunications equipment from Huawei.

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