Less than two months after the easing of sanctions against Huawei by the White House, today comes a severe blow inflicted by the US government against the Chinese company. In the past few hours, in fact, the FCC has blocked the sale of all telecommunications and surveillance devices products from Huawei, ZTE and other China-based companies.
The block certainly does not come as a bolt from the blue, since it is the simple one application of the Secure Equipment Act, which became law last year after US President Joe Biden ratified it. Until now, however, no government agency had ever stepped up to enforce the new law.
Today, however, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has officially implemented the law with a series of new regulations which in fact block imports of Huawei, ZTE products, Hytera, Hikvision and Dahua in the USA. For now, the block only concerns the telecommunications sectors (therefore modems, routers and so on) and surveillance systems (cameras, anti-theft systems and other similar devices): this means that these products can no longer be imported into the United States.
The FCC also has not recommended to use Huawei products and other companies subject to sanctions to those who already own them, explaining that “we are committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that unreliable communications systems are not allowed for use within our national borders. The new rules are an important part of our commitments to protect American citizens from threats to national security affecting the telecommunications“.
For now, however, the block imposed by the FCC it does not affect all devices from Huawei and ZTEbut only those of the two sectors target of the measure issued last year by the White House and only those that are used in sectors of public importance or that have to do with the government. Therefore, the hope that, after the easing of recent months, Huawei will be able to resume importing at least its smartphones on the American market is not yet dead.
