US bans largest Chinese telecom over 'espionage', national security issues

The US has banned China’s biggest telecoms companies from operating across the country citing "significant national security concerns,” US Federal Communications Commission said in a press release. China Telecom, one of Beijing’s three big state-owned carriers had its license revoked earlier on Tuesday by the US FCC in a major blow against the renowned Chinese business.

FCC adopted an order ending China Telecom (Americas) Corporation’s ability to provide domestic interstate and international telecommunications services within the United States. The stringent measure against the state-owned China Telecom Corp was taken because the company was “subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government,” the US FCC said in a press document. 

“Revocation and Termination direct China Telecom Americas to discontinue any domestic or international services that it provides pursuant to its section 214 authority within sixty days following the release of the order,” the order from Senior Communications Advisor, Will Wiquist stated on October 26. 

China Telecom's control by PRC allows for 'espionage' in the US: FCC

FCC argued that China Telecom Americas had failed to rebut the serious national security concerns about its continued presence in the US. And despite that in December 2020 the Commission launched a proceeding and established a process that allowed for China to present arguments or evidence in the matter, it failed to provide adequate evidence for the same. “Based on the totality of the extensive unclassified record alone, the Commission’s public interest analysis finds that the present and future public interest, convenience, and necessity is no longer served by China Telecom Americas’ retention of its section 214 authority,” FCC said revoking China Telecom’s license. 

China Telecom Americas, the US subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is subject to “exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government and is highly likely to be forced to comply with Chinese government requests without sufficient legal procedures subject to independent judicial oversight,” said the Federal Communications Commission.

It argued that given the changing national security environment, US FCC has found that the telecommunications services’ ownership and control by the Chinese government raise significant national security and law enforcement risks. China Telecom and its parent entities allow the Chinese government to “access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute US communications,” FCC stressed, adding that this, in turn, allows China to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.  The company, it said, demonstrates a lack of candour, trustworthiness, and reliability. 

China Telecom Americas erodes “the baseline level of trust that the Commission and other US government agencies require of telecommunications carriers given the critical nature of the provision of telecommunications service in the United States,” said FCC.