The United States government, through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has banned the sale of equipment from Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance vendors Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua due to “unacceptable risks for national security”.

“The Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules prohibiting communications equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security from being permitted for import into or sale in the United States,” the statement read. FCC Press.

“These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications,” President J. Rosenworcel commented.

The US ban not only covers parent companies, but also their subsidiaries and affiliates.

The United States has previously accused telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei of stealing intellectual property, research and development data and planting backdoors in their products that could potentially allow the government in Beijing to conduct investigations. spy operations. [1, 2].

Telecommunications technologies from Huawei (5G in particular) and ZTE have been banned or excluded in recent years in several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, United States, Canada, Romania and the United Kingdom.

Four years ago, some members of the European Union also raised concerns about security threats from technologies supplied by Huawei and ZTE and barred the two companies from bidding on various projects.

However, Huawei has not been banned across Europe, as some countries depend on the company for essential parts from telecom operators, but several members have passed legislation to limit risks from Chinese equipment suppliers. telecommunications.

Surveillance camera maker Dahua was added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s “Entity List” in October 2019, but the sale of its equipment to U.S. consumers and private businesses has not been banned.

In March 2021, the FCC included the five companies now banned from having a presence in the US market on its list of communications equipment and services (List covered) because they were “deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States citizens”.

Marking them as such means that federal grants could no longer use or purchase equipment from these companies.

The four FCC members, who have different political leanings, voted unanimously to adopt the new measures against the five Chinese tech companies.

BleepingComputer contacted all five companies for comment on the FCC’s decision, but did not receive a response by press time.

A statement from Hikvision for China Daily says the FCC’s decision has no impact on US national security, but will affect small businesses, local authorities, school districts and individual consumers as they will incur higher costs for similar technology.