On China and network security, the Biden administration is picking up where Trump left off
More companies considered security threats: Since last year, the FCC has kept a list of companies considered a threat to national security, in line with the Secure Networks Act which prohibits using federal funds to purchase equipment from these firms. Last week the FCC updated its list. Not only does the FCC continue to restrict Huawei and ZTE (which were already designated as security threats last year); it has also extended that status to three more companies – Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, and Dahua Technology.
Bipartisanship has been on display all along: The FCC’s new announcement comes as little surprise, considering that decisions taken by the Trump administration on this issue were generally adopted in a bipartisan fashion. For example, the FCC’s order to prevent operators from using the Universal Service Fund to purchase Huawei and ZTE equipment was adopted unanimously in November 2019 – as was the rip-and-replace order that the FCC adopted in December 2020, providing funds for operators needing to remove Huawei equipment.
Biden could be prepared to go even further than Trump: There are reports that suggest the Biden administration is placing new restrictions on the number and type of components that can be shipped by US companies to Huawei and other firms on the Entity List. One revised licence restricts components from being used “with or in any 5G devices”, according to reports from Reuters.
Source: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-releases-list-equipment-services-pose-security-threat
