In their August 18-dated letter to the Obama administration, eight Republican senators have sought the scrutiny of a bid by one of China’s largest telecom manufacturers, Huawei Inc., for the supply of telecommunications equipment to Sprint Nextel in the US.

Saying that a potential deal between Sprint Nextel and Huawei – which apparently has close ties to the People’s Liberation Army in China - will likely pose a threat to national security, the Republican lawmakers have asked the administration to look into the blocking of the equipment deal.

Further noting that Huawei had connections with the Saddam Hussein regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran, the senators – including Arizona’s Jon Kyl; Missouri’s Christopher S. Bond; and Maine’s Susan Collins - said: “We are concerned that Huawei’s position as a supplier of Sprint Nextel could create substantial risk for U.S. companies and possibly undermine U.S. national security.”

While a Treasury spokeswoman, Natalie Wyeth, has informed that the department had received the letter and would review it, the attempted move to block Huawei’s bid for selling equipment in the US is likely to further exacerbate American-Chinese trade relations; thereby intensifying a longstanding debate over allowing big Chinese companies to invest in sensitive industries in the US.

Already, the letter by the republican senators has drawn sharp responses from Huawei as well as the Chinese government; with Wang Baodong, the Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, saying that Huawei was a private company that simply intended doing business in the US.