On Thursday, the FCC blocked China Unicom from selling wireless services in the United States, over grave concerns for national security. This means that all three Chinese carriers are now banned from “operating on U.S. soil.”
FCC vote unanimous
In a unanimous 4–0 vote on January 27, The FCC thwarted China Unicom’s plans for global domination, at least as far as Americans are concerned.
Officials are convinced that the U.S. based tentacle of the state-run Chinese company would be nothing but spy surveillance in disguise.
Back in 2021, the Federal Communications Commission outlawed China Telecom Americas, and two years before that, eighty-sixed China Mobile.
The latest FCC vote means that all three mobile carriers are prohibited from providing cell service anywhere in the United States. Xi Jinping won’t be tapping every call, after all.
The announcement is particularly urgent as the Beijing home branch of China Unicom is “the official and only communication service partner for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.”
That’s something the FCC has no control over and the games begin on February 4.
60 days to cease service
The FCC order gives China Unicom “60 days to cease domestic and international services.” That will be a big hit to the communists because China Unicom Americas was given operating authority a full “two decades ago.”
Now that they’re entrenched and entangled with the U.S. technology, “the national security landscape has shifted.”
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explains that there’s “been mounting evidence, and with it, a growing concern that Chinese state-owned carriers pose a real threat to the security of our telecommunications networks.”
The panel also has their sights on “Chinese telecom providers Pacific Networks Corp and ComNet, its wholly-owned subsidiary.”
An order was issued to those entities by the FCC in April of 2020 which “required the firms to show proof that they were free from Chinese state influence.” They aren’t. It seems that each and every one of these Chinese companies have the same problem. A Chinese cybersecurity law which compels the carriers to “be used as an espionage tool and give Beijing opportunities to ‘access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute U.S. communications.'”
Rosenworcel notes, companies like China Unicom are “highly likely to be forced to comply with Chinese government requests—including the disclosure of communications by American citizens—without sufficient legal protections and independent judicial oversight.”
