FCC Revokes US License for China Telecom over Security Concerns

BEIJING, October 27 (TMTPOST)— The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States ordered to revoke and terminate China Telecom (Americas) Corporation’s authority to provide telecom services in the country. In its statement on Tuesday, the watchdog directs the U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese telecom giants to end services at home or abroad within sixty days following the order.

FCC has started the process to revoke China Telecom's authorization to operate in the U.S. in last December, citing the company’s unsatisfactory response as to why the license should be maintained since receiving notice in April 2020. Till now, FCC still showed dissatisfied with the follow-up response and said failed to rebut the serious concerns of its executive branch agencies. FCC found that China Telecom Americas “is highly likely to be forced to comply with Chinese government requests” and its ownership and control by the Chinese government raise significant national security and law enforcement risks and further mitigation would not address these concerns. Moreover, FCC believes the company’s conduct demonstrated a lack of trustworthiness and reliability that erodes the baseline level of trust that the U.S. government agencies including FCC require telecom carriers shall operate in the country.

A representative of China Telecom Americas told Reuters that the company felt disappointed on FCC’s decision and is seeking all the alternatives available while keeping serving customers.

“ ‘Promoting national security’ is such a lame excuse cited by the US side, the true nature of which is hide its abuse of national security to oppress certain Chinese enterprises,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in December, right after FCC announced to begin the process of revoking China Telecom’s authorization. Hua commented that the United States cannot provide any evidence to justify its actions and its own actions negate its own words on upholding market economy and fair competition. She repeatedly urged the U.S. to stop its unjustified crack-down on certain Chinese enterprises, and offer a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for normal Sino-US cooperation.

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