The Secure Equipment Act, the latest effort by the U.S.
government to crack down on Chinese telecom and tech companies, was approved
unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Oct. 28 and earlier in the month by the U.S.
House on a 420-4 vote.
The signing comes days before Biden and Chinese leader Xi
Jinping are expected to hold a virtual summit. Reuters reported the meeting is
expected Monday, amid tensions over trade, human rights and military
activities.
The new law requires the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to no longer review or approve any authorization application for
equipment that poses an unacceptable risk to national security.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the commission has
approved more than 3,000 applications from Huawei since 2018. The law
"will help to ensure that insecure gear from companies like Huawei and ZTE
can no longer be inserted into America’s communications networks," Carr
said.
In March, the FCC designated five Chinese companies as
posing a threat to national security under a 2019 law aimed at protecting U.S.
communications networks.
The named companies included previously designated Huawei
and ZTE, as well as Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital
Technology Co and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co.
The FCC in June voted unanimously to advance a plan to ban
approvals for equipment in U.S. 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.
Huawei in June called the proposed FCC revision
"misguided and unnecessarily punitive."
Last month, the FCC voted to revoke the authorization for
China Telecom's U.S. subsidiary to operate in the United States, citing
national security concerns. -Reuters
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