Businesses on an FCC list of entities deemed to pose “unacceptable risks to America’s national security” will be subject to a new investigation.
The investigation, announced earlier in March, will examine the U.S. operations of entities on the FCC’s so-called “Covered List.”
The list, published on the FCC’s website, includes entities like the China-based Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation, based in Shenzhen.
In a statement with the March 21 announcement, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr described Huawei, ZTE, and China Telecom as “CCP-aligned entities.”
CCP is common shorthand for the Chinese Communist Party.
“The FCC has taken concrete actions to address the threats posed by Huawei, ZTE, China Telecom, and many other entities that pose an unacceptable risk to America’s national security, including by doing Communist China’s bidding,” Carr stated.
Carr accuses Chinese companies of sidestepping prohibitions
Despite being placed on the FCC’s list of entities seen as risky, Carr said he has reason to believe that entities on the Covered List “are trying to make an end run around those FCC prohibitions by continuing to do business in America on a private or ‘unregulated’ basis.”
“We are not going to just look the other way,” Carr said.
Carr said entities identified by the FCC’s Council on National Security will have the scope of their ongoing activities in the country identified.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Screenshot
Additionally, he said the FCC will “move quickly to close any loopholes that have permitted untrustworthy, foreign adversary state-backed actors to skirt our rules.”
The FCC’s focus on Chinese telecoms has been bipartisan over the years, as noted by the Rip and Replace program, established in 2019.
The program, an initiative by the FCC designed to help secure the U.S. telco infrastructure, seeks to remove and replace network equipment made by Chinese companies, particularly Huawei and ZTE.
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