On Thursday, US President Joe Biden signed legislation that prohibits Chinese telecommunications firms like Huawei and ZTE from receiving new equipment authorizations from the US regulators. It is the latest move by Washington to curb China’s technology giants on national-security grounds.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be unable to grant or review applications from firms that the agency determines are a security risk to the United States, as a result of the new legislation called Secure Equipment Act.
Biden signed Act blocking Huawei and ZTE from receiving new equipment authorizations
According to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, his agency has given the go-ahead for over 3,000 Huawei applications since 2018. Some of these were submitted after the 2019 executive order prohibiting the firm from operating in several parts of the United States.
Carr stated that the legislation “will help to ensure that insecure gear from companies like Huawei and ZTE can no longer be inserted into America’s communications networks. We have already determined that this gear poses an unacceptable risk to our national security, so closing what I have called the ‘Huawei loophole’ is an appropriate action for us to take.”
The two Chinese manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE, have not responded to requests for comment on the new legislation.
In fact, despite their differences on a variety of issues including trade, technology, and human rights, the two nations continue to quarrel.
The Commerce Department’s entity list, which prohibits US companies from selling equipment to Huawei and ZTE, includes both Huawei and ZTE.
Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican stated: “Huawei and ZTE are probably the two most prominent companies that still have a lot of equipment out there where Americans’ data runs across those networks, and “They would no longer be able to be licensed by the FCC, again, because they’re listed as national security threats,” he added.
