Washington expels Chinese phone carrier over security concerns

Regulators are banning China Telecom from the American market due to supposed national security threat.

As one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers, China Telecom (Americas) is to stop providing domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days, under an order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Amid rising tension with Beijing, the fear is that the Chinese may disrupt American communications and potentially cause a security risk if messages were intercepted.

The FCC said China Telecom “demonstrate a lack of candor, trustworthiness and reliability”, but did not give exact details of why they needed to be banned.

This move comes as part of the wider U.S. policy to stop the infiltration of Chinese tech firms.

China Telecom were one of the companies that were expelled from stock exchanges under an order by Former President Donald Trump back in 2019.

In response to the decision, a China Telecom America spokesperson said the FCC’s decision was “disappointing” and that it would “pursue all available options while continuing to serve our customers”.

It is expected that Beijing will announce a retaliation to this measure.