FCC Chief Cites Concerns on Spy Threats From Chinese Telecoms Firms (reuters.com)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, in a letter sent to lawmakers earlier this week (but released just now), said he shares the concerns of U.S. lawmakers about espionage threats from Chinese smartphone maker Huawei and plans to take "proactive steps" to ensure the integrity of the U.S. communications supply chain. From a report: Pai said he shares concerns over the "security threat that Huawei and other Chinese technology companies pose to our communications networks." Pai said he intends to take action in the "near future," but offered no specifics. Pai's letter follows the introduction of legislation by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio in February that would block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecoms equipment from Huawei, the world's third largest smartphone maker, or Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp, citing concerns the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.

Comments

And people are surprised?

[Dynedain]

So we offshored all our application development to India, all our electronics manufacturing to China, all our security development to eastern Europe and Russia, and now we are worried about our gadgets being compromised?

Color me surprised.

Re:Who tf does he think he's fooling

[arglebargle_xiv]

It's all the Yellow Peril's fault. Pay no attention to the (US) Facebook or (UK) Cambridge Analytica, everything's the fault of the Chinese.

Good luck with that...

[YuppieScum]

So, you need:

1. No use of Chinese (or perhaps East Asian) fabs for any of your silicon.
2. No involvement of any companies with any Chinese (opEA) ownership in the manufacturing processes.
3. No involvement of any Chinese (opEA) nationals in any of the hardware or software design processes.

In fact, how about "only security-cleared US nationals and wholly-US owned corporations wholly based in the US be permitted to be involved in telecoms kit, from raw material production to installation and configuration."

That might work, and would require major investment in the US, and loads of new jobs, too.

However,campaign contributions might be a little light for a while...