When Joe Biden became the new US president, the noose around Huawei was expected to loosen up. The new president had promised to review the Huawei ban situation with his administration, but there has been absolutely no attempt to relax the sanctions.
Instead, in a disappointing turn of events, the US president has signed new legislation that will further tighten the ability of Chinese companies to obtain new equipment licenses from American regulators. The new law is called the Secure Equipment Act and it was approved by the US House of Rep in September. The US Senate also approved this law in October.
Here is a short summary of what the Secure Equipment Act is about:
With the advent of the new law, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will stop reviewing or granting approval to any application for authorization for equipment that is marked as posing an unacceptable risk to national security. Already, the FCC had in March this year designed five Chinese companies – Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision, and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co, a camera equipment manufacturer, as posing a threat to national security.
As a result of this act, any Chinese company that is deemed a national security threat to the US will have its equipment licenses and authorizations revoked. In simple words, no Chinese companies will be able to supply their own communications equipment in the US.