The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is continuing to clamp down on telecom gear imported into the United States by major Chinese corporations that are on the panel’s “Covered List” of companies deemed national security risks.

The FCC this week voted 3-0 to block new approvals for devices – ranging from smartwatches to home security cameras – from such companies as Huawei, ZTE, China Mobile International USA, China Telecom, Hangzhou Hikvision, and Dahua Technology, according to Reuters.

The vote also allows the panel to ban equipment that had previously been allowed.

It’s the latest move by the commission to shut down paths that such corporations can use to bring their technology into the United States. The latest vote came because the FCC was concerned about “loopholes that bad actors could use to threaten the security of our networks,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said, according to Reuters. “America’s foreign adversaries are constantly looking for ways to exploit any vulnerabilities in our system.”

Long-Term Security Worries

U.S. officials and politicians for years have been concerned that networking technologies from China that were being used by government agencies and private companies in their IT environments could include backdoors that would allow Chinese spies to secretly infiltrate systems and steal information.

The aggressive moves by the FCC under Carr have come amid reports that China-nexus threat groups like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon have established long-term presences in the networks of major U.S. telecoms and government agencies.

Targeting Companies on the ‘Covered List’

In March, Carr said the FCC – which had just established a Council on National Security – was investigating whether nine companies with links to the Chinese government that are on the Covered List were still selling banned equipment or services in the United States.

“We have reason to believe that, despite those actions, some or all of these Covered List entities are trying to make an end run around those FCC prohibitions by continuing to do business in America on a private or ‘unregulated’ basis,” Carr said in a statement at the time. “We are not going to just look the other way.”

More recently, the commission earlier this month said it was evaluating further restrictions on the Chinese companies on the Covered List, a prelude to the vote taken this week, with Carr saying that the FCC “will continue working to keep untrusted gear out of U.S. networks.”

Turning to HKT

Two weeks ago, the commission moved to block HKT Trust and HKT Ltd., one of Hong Kong’s largest telecoms, from interconnecting with U.S. domestic networks. HKT has a permit that allows a direct flow of calls and data back and forth with U.S. carriers.

However, HKT is a subsidiary of PCCW, a large Chinese information and communication technology company, which itself is partially owned by China Unicom, a member of the covered list.

The FCC is asking HKT to prove that it isn’t a national security threat and to justify why it should be allowed to keep its authorization to interconnect with U.S. telecoms.

“The FCC’s action on HKT today is an appropriate step towards ensuring the safety and integrity of our communications networks,” the commission’s chairman said in a statement. “The FCC will continue to safeguard America’s networks against penetration from foreign adversaries, like China.”

Carr said earlier this month that, as a result of the commission’s continued crackdown on Chinese networking companies, major U.S. online retailers had removed millions of listings of banned Chinese electronics from their sites, according to Reuters.

Chinese Analyst Pushes Back

Commenting on the latest FCC vote this week, a Chinese telecom analyst told the Global Times news organization that the United States had been using the issue of national security as a cover to attack Chinese tech companies, “hyping the concept” without providing evidence.

He also said the moves could backfire. U.S. companies could struggle to find telecom equipment of the same quality at similar prices, which could lead to higher costs and a slowdown of innovation around 5G and other technologies.