The Secure Equipment Act, the latest effort by the US
government to crack down on Chinese telecom and tech companies, was approved
last week by the US House on a 420-4 vote, and now goes to President Joe Biden
for his signature.
"Chinese state-directed companies like Huawei and ZTE
are known national security threats and have no place in our telecommunications
network," Republican Senator Marco Rubio said.
The measure would prohibit the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) from reviewing or issuing new equipment licenses to companies
on the FCC's “Covered Equipment or Services List."
In March, the FCC designated five Chinese companies as
posing a threat to national security under a 2019 law aimed at protecting US
communications networks.
The affected companies included the previously designated
Huawei and ZTE, as well as Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital
Technology and Zhejiang Dahua Technology.
The FCC in June had voted unanimously to advance a plan to
ban approvals for equipment in US telecommunications networks from those
Chinese companies even as lawmakers pursued legislation to mandate it.
The FCC vote in June drew opposition from Beijing.
“The United States, without any evidence, still abuses
national security and state power to suppress Chinese companies," Zhao
Lijian, a spokesperson at China's foreign ministry, said in June.
Under proposed rules that won initial approval in June, the
FCC could also revoke prior equipment authorizations issued to Chinese
companies.
A spokesperson for Huawei, which has repeatedly denied it is
controlled by the Chinese government, declined to comment Thursday but in June
called the proposed FCC revision "misguided and unnecessarily
punitive."
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the commission has
approved more than 3,000 applications from Huawei since 2018. Carr said
Thursday the bill "will help to ensure that insecure gear from companies
like Huawei and ZTE can no longer be inserted into America's communications
networks."
On Tuesday, the FCC voted to revoke the authorization for
China Telecom's US subsidiary to operate in the United States, citing national
security concerns. © Reuters
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