The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to ban all sales of new Huawei and ZTE telecommunications equipment in the United States due to “national security concerns,” Axios reports. This is the first time the FCC has made such a move and builds upon an earlier order barring the two firms from drawing on the $8.3 billion in federal subsidies issued in 2020.
FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated a draft order to her fellow commissioners on October 5 that would effectively ban the sale of all new Huawei and ZTE equipment in the U.S., two sources with direct knowledge of the order told Axios. The ban, which must still be voted on, would also apply to several Chinese video surveillance firms.
There have been ongoing, bipartisan concerns about integrating Chinese telecommunication technology into America’s infrastructure. Just prior to the 2020 FCC ruling, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed additional sanctions on Huawei limiting its access to the American semiconductor market.
At the time, Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) spoke strongly in favor of the move. “Let’s cut to the chase: China’s main export is espionage, and the distinction between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese ‘private-sector’ businesses like Huawei is imaginary.”
This recent move by the FCC demonstrates how rapidly American opinions about China have shifted. On the heels of Covid-19, a majority of Americans, regardless of political leaning, have come to hold unfavorable views of China.
The Trump administration had made it a vocal priority to distance itself from Huawei. “We don’t want their equipment in the United States because they spy on us,” Trump told Fox News in August 2020. “And any country that uses it, we’re not going to do anything in terms of sharing intelligence.” As with TikTok, many politicians and researchers have pointed to such companies’ ambiguous relationships with the Chinese government, their level of autonomy, and privacy sharing concerns.
At one corporate ceremony to inaugurate its new “machine learning” corps, Huawei employees raised their fists in CCP salute, as National Review previously reported. Behind the group was a banner hanging proclaiming: “Application integration, Cloud coordination, Build a leading competitor! Deepen channel distribution to help customers succeed on the frontline. Stay focused and competitive to live and die with the Corps. Machine Vision Corps, Victory! Huawei, Victory! Victory! Victory!”
This latest move marks the end of a process set in motion by President Joe Biden following the passage of the Secure Equipment Act in late 2021. The ruling closes what FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr warned last year was a “Huawei loophole” permitting private companies to purchase Chinese technology.