Attorney General William Barr will lead a revamped national security group dubbed “Team Telecom” as part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat foreign influence in the U.S. telecommunications sector amid concerns about China and other foreign parties.
“In the digital age, our telecommunications networks are more important than ever, and not just to the economy. This is a national security and public safety issue,” Barr said in a statement on Tuesday. “That’s why the federal government must be vigilant and ensure that a foreign adversary cannot undermine the networks our country depends on.”
The announcement of Barr’s lead role follows an executive order by President Trump over the weekend, which established the “Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector” after years of the informal Team Telecom interagency group working on these issues.
The group is tasked with working with the Federal Communications Commission to ensure foreign foes do not gain undue access to or control over communications networks in the United States, an issue that is rising in importance because of fifth-generation wireless networks, or 5G, and the growing global dominance of Chinese state-backed Huawei.
The Justice Department charged Huawei in a global racketeering scheme earlier this year.
Trump’s weekend order said the “security, integrity, and availability” of U.S. telecom networks are “vital” to the “national security and law enforcement interests” of the country when empowering the new group.
The Justice Department said its National Security Division’s Foreign Investment Review Section will represent Barr at meetings.
“We look forward to continuing to work with our federal partners to ensure that our nation’s telecommunications networks maintain the security, integrity, and continuity that the American people expect and American security demands,” John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said Tuesday.
The group is also comprised of the heads of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, with group advisers including the leaders of the State, Treasury, and Commerce Departments, as well as the U.S. trade representative, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the director of national intelligence.
The committee’s responsibilities include reviewing and assessing applications for everything from standard telecommunications to submarine cabling to determine whether granting a license would “poses a risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.” The committee is empowered to review existing licenses, too. For each review, the DNI is tasked with providing a written intelligence assessment of “any threat to national security.”
The FCC complained for years that Team Telecom needed more structure to be effective, warning in 2015 of “inextricable black holes” due to a lack of communication during the review process, “no clarity for the future” from the group, and fears that it may be “subject to politics.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised Trump’s executive order on Monday.
“I applaud the President for formalizing Team Telecom review and establishing a process that will allow the Executive Branch to provide its expert input to the FCC in a timely manner,” Pai said. “Now that this Executive Order has been issued, the FCC will move forward to conclude our own pending rulemaking on reform of the foreign ownership review process.”
Pai added that “as we demonstrated last year in rejecting the China Mobile application, this FCC will not hesitate to act to protect our networks from foreign threats.” But he also emphasized the U.S. “would welcome beneficial investment in our networks.”
The Justice Department backed the FCC’s successful plan late last year to block Chinese telecommunications companies such as Huawei and ZTE from receiving federal money to help build U.S. broadband infrastructure.
“At this critical moment, while the world decides where to place its trust, we should not signal that Huawei and ZTE are anything other than a threat to our collective security,” Barr said at the time.
The Justice Department also supported the FCC’s proposal to replace any broadband equipment already in place that uses the two Chinese companies’ equipment.
“Their own track record, as well as the practices of the Chinese government, demonstrate that Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted,” Barr said.
The FCC declared the two companies “pose a threat to national security” and blocked them from receiving anything from the U.S. government’s $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund in late November.
“If the Chinese government is willing to use its leverage over things like professional basketball and Taiwanese flag emojis, imagine what could happen if we allowed Chinese company equipment into our 5G networks,” Pai said at the time.
The Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies believe Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies are working hand-in-hand with the ruling Chinese Communist Party, potentially giving China’s surveillance state access to hardware and networks around the world. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly warned European allies against using Huawei’s 5G technology.
Barr said in February that U.S. national security depended on pushing back against China’s dominance in 5G technology.
He suggested putting “our large market and financial muscle” behind either the Finnish business Nokia and the Swedish company Ericsson, because they are “the only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now.”
Barr said China “has emerged as the United States’s top geopolitical adversary” and “remains a dictatorship under which the Communist Party elite jealously guard their monopoly on power.”
He also highlighted his agency’s China initiative, launched in 2018, which aims to combat both Chinese malign influence, ranging from cyberespionage to technology theft, and its Thousand Talents Program aimed at stealing research. He said the annual cost to the U.S. economy from Chinese malfeasance could be as high as $600 billion.
The Justice Department has increased its scrutiny of China’s activities in recent years, charging an increased number of espionage cases, cracking down on China-based hacking schemes, prosecuting Chinese efforts to steal trade secrets, and more.
