The US bans the import of telecom services from six companies as Britain restricts security cameras
In the technological field, the rivalry between the United States and China is once again visible. Washington threw a poison dart at the Asian giant after it announced on Friday a ban on the import of telecommunications services from half a dozen Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, which they deemed a “national security risk”.
The measure, which affects sales of any new product by not allowing it to enter the market for fear it could be used to spy on its users, is in response to the inclusion of the affected companies on the list drawn up in 2021 by the Federal Communications (FCC) Commission, which classified them as an “unacceptable risk” to the country’s national security.
The FCC will consider reviewing current authorizations and review procedures for announced bans. The president, Jessica Rosenworcel, assured that these new guidelines “represent an important part” of the actions taken to protect Americans from the “threat” of telecommunications equipment. The measure not only affects companies that make mobile devices, but also companies that specialize in radio equipment such as Hytera Communications and video surveillance such as Dahua and Hikvision, according to CNBC.
US President Joe Biden is very closed about Chinese technology, following the line that his predecessor, Donald Trump, has imposed. Under the policies of the former Republican president, Huawei was included in a “blacklist” in 2019 that banned US suppliers from doing business with this company, which omitted it from Google’s Android operating system used in mobile devices.
The technology war between the US and China opened another chapter just two weeks ago, when Republican lawmakers called for the TikTok application to be banned in the country over alleged espionage. “Millions of Americans are increasingly relying on TikTok, a Chinese application that has been exposed to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party,” led by Xi Jinping, and “Beijing could collect confidential information from government employees.” North American, revealed Senator Marco Rubio and Member of the House of Representatives Mike Gallagher.
The American giant is not the only country to restrict 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 assessing the “potential current and future security risks associated with the installation of visual surveillance systems on government properties,” said Cabinet Minister Oliver Dowden.
According to CNBC, the UK government’s move also includes guidance for departments to disconnect these devices from central computer networks and consider removing them entirely.
It is also not the first time that this problem has occurred in London. Months earlier, dozens of lawmakers called for a ban on the sale and use of Dahua and Hikvision security cameras over privacy concerns. 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.”
Source: La Verdad
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