By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to advance a proposal to bar all Chinese labs from testing electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the United States.
The agency says about 75% of all U.S. electronics are tested in China and plans to adopt a streamlined approval process for devices tested in U.S. labs or labs from countries not posing national security risks.
In a separate 3-0 vote, the commission advanced a proposal to bar China Mobile China Telecom and China Unicom from operating data centers in the U.S. and could ban telecom carriers from interconnecting with companies on its national security “Covered List.”
Previously, the FCC barred the three companies from operating in the U.S.
The FCC said it was also considering barring interconnection with companies that own data centers or points of presence at U.S. internet exchange points, extending restrictions to some affiliates of listed firms, and prohibiting interconnection with carriers using equipment from suppliers on the national security list including Huawei and ZTE.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr said the commission is considering a series of actions “to secure our networks from these bad actors, including limiting their interconnection ability.
The moves build on previous actions to clamp down on Beijing, including earlier this month a proposal to ban the import of equipment from Chinese manufacturers on the Covered List, after barring approvals of new models by those companies in 2022.
In October the FCC moved to revoke the ability of HKT, a leading Hong Kong telecom carrier and subsidiary of PCCW, to operate in the U.S. In December, it banned the import of all new models of Chinese drones and last month it banned imports of new models of Chinese-made consumer routers, the boxes connecting computers, phones, and smart devices to the internet.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul, Elaine Hardcastle)
