The United States government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has banned the sale of equipment from Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance vendor Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua due “unacceptable risks to national security”.
“The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules prohibiting communications equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security from being authorized for importation or sale in the United States,” reads the press release from the FCC.
“These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications,” commented Chairwoman J. Rosenworcel.
The U.S. ban covers not only the parent companies but their subsidiaries and affiliates as well.
“The new rules prohibit the authorization of equipment through the FCC’s Certification process and make clear that such equipment cannot be authorized under the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity process or be imported or marketed under rules that allow exemption from an equipment authorization.” – FCC
The U.S. previously accused telecommunication hardware vendor Huawei of stealing intellectual property, research and development data, and for planting backdoors in their products that would potentially allow the Beijing government run espionage operations [1, 2].
Telecommunications technology from both Huawei (5G in particular) and ZTE have been banned or excluded over the past years in multiple countries, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, the U.S., Canada, Romania, and the U.K.
Starting four years ago, some members of the European Union also expressed concerns about security threats from technology provided by Huawei and ZTE and excluded the two companies from bidding for various project.
Huawei has not been banned all over Europe, though, as some countries rely on the company for core parts for telecom operators, but multiple members have passed legislation to limit risks from Chinese telecom equipment suppliers.
Surveillance camera maker Dahua was added to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s ‘Entity List’ in October 2019, but sales of its equipment to consumers and private American companies weren’t banned.
In March 2021, the FCC included all five companies now banned from having a presence in the United States market on it list of communications equipment and services (Covered List) as they were “deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.”
Marking them as so means that Federal subsidies could no longer use or purchase equipment from these companies.
All four FCC members, who have different political orientations, voted unanimously to adopt the new measures against the five Chinese tech firms.
BleepingComputer has reached out to all five companies for a comment on FCC’s decision but has not received a reply before publishing time.
A statement from Hikvision for China Daily says that FCC’s decision has no impact on the U.S. national security but will affect small businesses, local authorities, school districts, and individual consumers as they will incur higher costs for similar technology.
Update Nov. 29 – Dahua Technology USA has sent BleepingComputer the following comment:
Dahua is continuing to review the FCC’s order, but based on our current analysis we believe that the actions taken in the Order go far beyond the Commission’s statutory authority, and will do little or nothing to protect U.S. national security.
However, the FCC’s Order does not affect products that are already authorized, and leaves open a path for Dahua to secure authorizations for additional products in the future, provided they are not marketed for public safety, government facilities, critical infrastructure, or national security purposes.
Given that Dahua’s products are not currently marketed for those purposes and have not been for several years, we are reasonably confident that this Order will allow us to continue to serve most of our US customers for years to come.
Update 2 Nov. 29 – ZTE has sent BleepingComputer the following comment:
ZTE strongly disagrees with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision and is evaluating its options to defend its interests.
ZTE has made repeated attempts at constructive engagement with U.S. policymakers to understand any possible concerns about the products it now sells in the United States.
At no time has the United States Government identified any specific, addressable concerns with regard to products that ZTE sells in the United States or instances in which ZTE products have been used to impair either U.S. security or consumer privacy.
In light of the current market environment, ZTE will gradually withdraw its business operations from the U.S. and focus its continued growth in other markets.
Currently, ZTE’s U.S. operation accounts for less than 1% of the company’s overall revenue. The FCC’s decision will have no material impact on ZTE’s business operations.
Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-bans-sales-of-huawei-hikvision-zte-and-dahua-equipment/
