The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed that it has rejected a petition from China-based ZTE Corp which had asked the agency to reconsider its decision to designate the company as a U.S. national security threat to communications networks.
For those who are unaware, earlier this year in June, FCC has formally designated China-based Huawei Technologies and ZTE as a national security threat. With this, the companies were barred from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to supply equipment.
Huawei has also made a similar request to the FCC to which the agency said that it is extending the timeline to respond to Huawei’s petition until 11th December “to fully and adequately consider the voluminous record.”
Prior to FCC declaring these two Chinese giants as a security risk, in May 2019, Donald Trump had signed an executive order banning U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment from companies that pose a national security risk and has also added Huawei to the “Entity List” which is basically a trade blacklist.
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The reaffirmation from FCC indicates that the agency is determined to keep both these Chinese companies away from the country’s telecom market where small rural carriers are still relying on their cheap network equipment.
Although both Huawei and ZTE have denied the allegations leveled against them, the United States has been increasingly making it difficult for the Chinese companies to operate in the U.S. because of the US-China trade war.
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