The United States Federal Communications Commission has issued a ban on all electronics and equipment from Chinese state-owned company Huawei on Friday, stating:
“The Commission amends our rules related to equipment authorization to further secure our communications networks and supply chains from equipment that poses an unacceptable risk to national security of the United States.”
This is just the latest in a list of major orders adopted or issued by the FCC in order to improve the nation’s communications security and combat foreign spying. In March of 2021, Huawei, ZTE, and several other Chinese companies were listed as communications and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security on the ‘Covered List‘, per Section 1.50002 of the Commission’s rules. A number of other tasks were raised after the FCC outlined American communications vulnerabilities, including removing and replacing untrusted hardware from government systems, as well as removing operating authorities from several Chinese state-owned companies.
Previously, these companies were already listed as security threats, with a list of complaints filed against them. Such as in January of 2019 when the Department of Justice filed charges against Huawei and its Chief Financial Officer on crimes including, conspiracy, bank and wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia already have limited bans on Huawei and several other companies.
Officials in the United States hope this measure will not only stop immediate concerns, but pave the way for future internet and telecommunications security threats to be minimized in order to protect national infrastructure as the U.S. world hegemony continues to be threatened from abroad.
