White House bans equipment from Chinese telecom firms: ‘Unacceptable risk to national security’

The Biden administration on Friday moved to ban from the U.S. telecommunications equipment manufactured by several Chinese companies, citing the purported security risk posed by those corporations.

The Federal Communications Commission said in a press release that it was banning “communications equipment produced by Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Dahua Technology,” all of them Chinese corporations. 

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in the release that the commission is “committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders.”

The proposal was first floated last summer following a March 2021 determination that the five companies posed a national security risk due to concerns of spying from Chinese intelligence.