The Federal Communications Commission banned China Unicom Americas from the U.S. market, labeling the Chinese military-linked company as a national security threat even as it is set to be the telecommunications provider at the Winter Olympics.
The FCC announced Thursday that it was revoking the ability of China Unicom to provide telecom services in the United States, concluding the company had “failed to dispel serious concerns” about its operations and assessing that China Unicom “is subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government.” The Chinese government’s influence over the company raised “significant national security and law enforcement risks by providing opportunities for China Unicom Americas, its parent entities, and the Chinese government to access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute U.S. communications, which in turn allow them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.”
The Beijing Olympics selected China Unicom Beijing for the key communications role at the Winter Games despite China Unicom Beijing’s parent company, China Unicom, previously being blacklisted in the U.S. for its ties to China’s military. China Unicom Americas makes its ties more explicit, describing itself as a “wholly-owned subsidiary” of China Unicom.
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The selection of the blacklisted and Huawei-linked firm was made by China and not the International Olympic Committee, though the IOC itself has partnerships with companies that have been linked to Chinese government surveillance, implicated in using forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang, and faced U.S. scrutiny as national security threats.
China Unicom has made clear it is working closely with Huawei and relying upon Huawei technology for the Olympics. Huawei, one of the global leaders in 5G wireless technology, was designated a national security threat in the summer of 2020, with the FCC banning the company from accessing U.S. government subsidies to build communication infrastructure.
The Beijing Olympics’ website lists China Unicom as an “Official Partner of Beijing 2022″ and says leaders from the Beijing Organizing Committee and China Unicom signed the partnership agreement during a December 2017 ceremony at China Unicom’s Beijing headquarters.
The Treasury Department added China Unicom to the “Communist Chinese Military Companies List” in January 2021, and the department followed up by placing it on the list of “Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies” that June.
Democratic FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called China Unicom’s responses to the FCC’s inquiries consistently “incomplete, misleading, or incorrect.” She said this wasn’t the first action the FCC had taken to “protect our communications infrastructure from the threat posed by Chinese state-owned carriers” and promised that “there’s more to come.”
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr emphasized that China Unicom’s conduct toward the FCC and toward Congress “lacked candor and trustworthiness.” He said that U.S. government agencies tasked with national security reviews agreed that China Unicom posed a threat and that the FCC also concluded the company “poses significant national security concerns due to its control and ownership by the Chinese government, including its susceptibility to complying with Communist China’s intelligence and cybersecurity laws.”
President Donald Trump previously issued an executive order in November 2020, finding that “the PRC’s military-industrial complex, by directly supporting the efforts of the PRC’s military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the U.S. and declaring a national emergency. He also banned transactions tied to securities connected to “any Communist Chinese military company.”
The New York Stock Exchange responded in December 2020 by delisting China Unicom, along with China Telecom and China Mobile.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in June that undid some of the Trump order, but he also concluded that “additional steps are necessary to address the national emergency” Trump had declared, including the threat posed by Chinese military-linked companies. Biden also labeled China Unicom as part of the “defense and related materiel sector” of the Chinese economy.
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The FCC previously denied China Mobile USA’s services application in 2019, and the commission revoked and terminated China Telecom America’s authority to provide services in the U.S. in October.
The Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Huawei and other Chinese companies could be working hand in hand with the ruling Communist Party, potentially giving China‘s surveillance state access to hardware and networks worldwide.
