US govt proposes expanding ban on Chinese tech equipment

The United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a ban on the import of telecommunications and surveillance equipment from select Chinese companies deemed national security risks.

The United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a ban on the import of telecommunications and surveillance equipment from select Chinese companies deemed national security risks.

The FCC had already, in 2022, decided to halt approvals of new models into the United States from Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. It is now proposing a complete ban, including on previously authorised devices still allowed into the US market, a report from Channel News Asia (CNA) said.

Public comment on the extension of the ban has been sought, as the FCC stated its finding that prohibiting the continued importation and marketing of such equipment is “necessary to protect national security by mitigating risks to the U.S. communications sector.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and Hikvision did not immediately comment, the report said, adding that already purchased devices would remain usable. However, the agency could bar the importation immediately after the order is finalised “to avoid a rush to import new devices.”

The proposal comes after a series of FCC actions targeting Chinese technology, including bans on new models of drones in December and consumer routers last week.

In October, the FCC decided to block new approvals for devices with parts from companies on its Covered List and allowed the agency to ban previously approved equipment in select instances.

Hikvision filed a lawsuit in December challenging that FCC decision, citing authority overreach, and sought “to retroactively curtail lawful authorisations without a sufficient legal or evidentiary basis.”

A US appeals court in February rejected a bid by Hikvision to lift the 2022 FCC ban on approvals of its new video surveillance and telecommunications equipment.

In March, United States-based artificial intelligence firm Anthropic accused three Chinese unicorns—DeepSeek, Minimax, and Moonshot AI—of illegally extracting capabilities from its Claude model to advance their own systems.