Security News > 2020 > April > US Threatens to Block China Telecom From American Market

The United States threatened Thursday to cut off Beijing-controlled China Telecom from serving the US market because of legal and security risks, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

The agencies making the recommendation - which also included the Justice Department, the Commerce Department, and the US Trade Representative - said China Telecom is vulnerable to "Exploitation, influence and control" by the Chinese government.

The agencies also made the recommendation based on "The nature of China Telecom's US operations," which they said allow Chinese government actors "To engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of US communications."

In September 2019 two senators, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Tom Cotton, asked the FCC to consider banning China Telecom and another company, China Unicom, from the US market over national security concerns.

The statement Thursday did not explain specifically what China Telecom had done to spark the recommendation that it be ousted from US telecommunications services.

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