Lawmakers in the US have unanimously voted for a new bill that will tighten the reins around Huawei and ZTE. The US Senate voted earlier this week to bring to approve a legislation that will prevent the companies that are labelled as a security threat from gaining access to equipment licenses from US regulators.

Huawei

According to an SCMP report, The new bill is the Secure Equipment Act, which is the latest move from the US government to restrict the Chinese telecommunications giant. This bill was brought to the US House last week and saw a 420-4 vote and has now been sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. Notably, the latest push back from the US lawmakers arrives after it was recently found that suppliers of blacklisted Chinese brands like Huawei and SMIC were still being granted` export licenses that were worth 61 billion US Dollars.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, “Chinese state-directed companies like Huawei and ZTE are known national security threats and have no place in our telecommunications network.” This new bill would prevent the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) from reviewing or issuing new equipment licenses to firms on the FCC’s “Covered Equipment or Services List.” For those unaware, Huawei and ZTE were placed on trade blacklist back in 2019 and were later designated as national security threats and barred from the US communications network.

Huawei

Back in June, the FCC had also unanimously to advance plans to ban approvals for equipment in US telecommunications network that are made from these Chinese companies. Although, this vote was withdrawn due to strong opposition from China. Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry had stated that The United States, without any evidence, still abuses national security and state power to suppress Chinese companies.”

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