In the midst of escalating tensions with Beijing, US regulators are removing a unit of China Telecom Ltd., one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers, from the American market as a national security threat.
According to a Federal Communications Commission ruling released Tuesday, China Telecom (Americas) Corp. must cease offering domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days. Beijing might use the corporation to eavesdrop on or disrupt U.S. communications, as well as “engage in espionage and other damaging acts against the United States,” according to the FCC.
The Biden administration has continued efforts launched by then-President Donald Trump to restrict state-owned Chinese enterprises’ access to U.S. technology and markets over concerns that they were posing a security risk or aiding military development. China Telecom is one of the companies that have been barred from trading on U.S. stock markets as a result of Trump’s decree prohibiting Americans from investing in them.
The FCC announced in 2019 that it planned to withdraw licenses awarded two decades ago to China Telecom and another state-owned carrier, China Unicom Ltd, citing security concerns. China Mobile Ltd, the third carrier, had applied for a license, but it was denied.
“The Chinese government’s ownership and control of China Telecom Americas pose serious national security and law enforcement vulnerabilities,” the FCC stated in a statement.
The FCC stated the company’s actions and conversations with US government entities “show a lack of transparency, integrity, and reliability.”
The Chinese government has stated that it will take action to defend its enterprises, although no reprisal for their presence in the US market has been announced.
The telecom corporations are on a US government blacklist of companies judged to be involved in military development by the Pentagon. State-owned oil companies, processor chip, and video technology suppliers, and construction, aerospace, rocketry, shipbuilding, and nuclear power equipment industries are among the others.
