Donald Trump’s ban on Chinese telecoms equipment would have ‘limited impact’ on China’s economy
- US president set to sign an executive order banning companies in the US wireless sector from buying Chinese telecoms equipment
- In August, the American president banned US government agencies from buying equipment made by Chinese telecoms and technology giant Huawei
US President Donald Trump’s plan to ban Chinese telecommunications equipment from US wireless networks will not have a major impact on China’s economy, analysts have said.
However, the ban would be a new blow to the expansionary plans of China’s telecoms giants, which account for the bulk of the country’s exports in this sector.
Currently, the US imports a relatively small amount of telecoms equipment from China that could be used in wireless networks.
Granular data is not available, but according to the latest available figures from China Customs, the US imported US$38.9 billion of telecoms equipment in total in 2016, 19 per cent of China’s total telecoms exports.
According to a 2017 report by a Beijing-based research institute affiliated with real estate developer China Fortune Land Development, most of China’s telecom equipment exported to the United States are wireless base stations and core network equipment.
These accounted for 10 per cent of China’s total exports of telecoms equipment, the study found.