US bans imports of telecom services from six companies as Britain restricts security cameras
The rivalry between the United States and China is once again evident in the technological field. Washington threw a poison dart at the Asian giant after announcing on Friday a ban on importing telecommunications services from half a dozen Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, considering them a “national security risk.”
The measure, which affects the sale of any new product by not allowing its authorization to enter the market for fear that it could be used to spy on its users, responds to the inclusion of the affected companies on the list made in 2021 by the Commission Federal Communications (FCC), in which they were classified as an “unacceptable risk” for the national security of the country.
The FCC will consider reviewing current authorizations and review procedures for announced bans. Its president, Jessica Rosenworcel, assured that these new guidelines “represent an important part” of the actions put in place to protect Americans against the “threat posed” by telecommunications equipment. The measure not only affects companies that manufacture mobile devices, but also those specialized in radio equipment such as Hytera Communications and video surveillance such as Dahua and Hikvision, according to CNBC.
The US president, Joe Biden, maintains a very closed position on Chinese technology, thus following the line imposed by his predecessor, Donald Trump. Through the policy of the former Republican president, Huawei was included in a ‘blacklist’ in 2019 that prohibited US suppliers from doing business with this company, which left it out of Google’s Android operating system used in mobile devices.
Xi Jinping’s influence
The technological war between the US and China opened another chapter just two weeks ago, when Republican legislators asked to ban the TikTok application in the country for alleged espionage. “Millions of Americans increasingly trust TikTok, a Chinese application exposed to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party,” led by Xi Jinping, and “Beijing could collect confidential information from government employees” North American, exposed Senator Marco Rubio and the member of the House of Representatives Mike Gallagher.
The American giant is not the only country that limits Chinese companies for fear of espionage. The UK opted earlier this week to urge government departments to stop installing surveillance cameras linked to Beijing in sensitive buildings. The decision was made after reviewing the “potential current and future security risks associated with the installation of visual surveillance systems on government property,” Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden said.
According to CNBC, the British Executive’s measure also includes guidance for departments to disconnect these devices from central computer networks and consider removing them entirely.
Nor is it the first time that this problem has come up in London. Months earlier, dozens of legislators called for a ban on the sale and use of Dahua and Hikvision security cameras over privacy fears. A claim the second company denied: “Hikvision cannot pass end-user data to third parties, we do not manage end-user databases or sell cloud storage in the UK.”
Topics
Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Joseph Biden, Huawei, TikTok, China, United States, London, Beijing, United Kingdom, Washington, Android
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