Washington:
The Federal Communications Commission officially designated Chinese companies Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp on Tuesday as a threat to US national security, a statement that prohibits US companies from tapping into $ 8.3 billion in government funds to buy equipment from companies.
The US telecommunications regulator voted in November 5-0 to publish the statement and proposed to force rural operators to remove and replace the equipment of the two Chinese companies from existing American networks. “We cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit the vulnerabilities of the network and compromise our critical communications infrastructure,” FCC president Ajit Pai said on Tuesday.
Huawei and ZTE did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but previously strongly criticized the FCC’s actions.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said on Tuesday that “unreliable equipment” remains in place in American networks and said that the United States Congress should allocate funds for replacements.
In May 2019, Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency and prohibiting U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by companies that pose a risk to national security. Last year, the Trump administration also added Huawei to its commercial blacklist.
The FCC has taken an increasingly harsh line against Chinese companies.
In April, the FCC announced it could close US operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies
The FCC has asked China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks Corp and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet (USA) LLC to explain why it should not initiate the revocation process for authorizations to operate in the United States.
The FCC granted its approvals to businesses over a decade ago.
In May 2019, the FCC voted to deny another state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, China Mobile Ltd, the right to provide U.S. services, citing risks that the Chinese government could use the company to conduct operations. espionage activities against the US government.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)