A trio of US Senators pressed Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to place smartphone maker Honor on a list of companies banned from accessing local components, potentially sealing a gap in the nation’s stance against the device maker’s former parent Huawei.

Senators Rubio, Scott and Cornyn wrote to Raimondo branding Honor a national security threat, claiming it is a branch of the Chinese government and is in a position to exploit the US technology sector.

“Beijing has effectively dodged a critical American export control”, the Senators wrote.

They also claimed the US is at risk of “communicating to adversaries that we lack the capacity or willpower to punish blatant financial engineering”, a reference to Huawei’s spinoff of Honor in 2020.

The Senators wrote they are troubled by Honor’s ability to acquire US chips and access Google Mobile Services.

Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, has also called for Honor to face the same sanctions as Huawei and other companies branded a security threat, while last month reports suggested the matter was a hot potato among several government departments.

When Huawei sold Honor the unit was shipping an estimated 70 million smartphones a year.

The Chinese vendor stated agents and dealers had called for the spinoff, which freed Honor from US sanctions targeting Huawei.