US bans telecom giant China Unicom over spying concerns

China Unicom has become the latest Chinese telecoms giant to be banned from the US over “significant” national security and espionage concerns.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it had voted unanimously to revoke authorisation for the company’s American unit to operate in the US.

The firm must stop providing telecoms services in America within 60 days.

The announcement comes after larger rival China Telecom had its licence to operate in the US revoked in October.

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said: “There has 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.”

China Unicom told the BBC its American unit “has a good record of complying with relevant US laws and regulations and providing telecommunication services and solutions as a reliable partner of its customers in the past two decades”.

“China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited will closely follow the development of the situation,” it added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

Chinese technology and telecoms firms have been targeted in recent years by US authorities over national security concerns.

In November, President Joe Biden signed legislation that stops companies judged to be a security threat from receiving new telecoms equipment licences.

Under the Secure Equipment Act, the FCC should no longer review applications from companies ruled to be a threat.

It means equipment from Huawei, ZTE and three other Chinese companies cannot be used in US telecoms networks.

Also in November, the US government added a dozen more Chinese companies to its restricted trade lis, citing national security and foreign policy concerns.

Washington said that some of the firms are helping develop the Chinese military’s quantum computing programme.

In October, Washington revoked the US licence of China Telecom, also citing national security concerns.

US officials said the Chinese government’s control of the company gave it the opportunity “to access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute US communications”.

This in turn could allow it “to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the US”, they said.

In 2019, Chinese state-owned telecoms giant China Mobile also had its US licence revoked.

-BBC

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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