Local US governments keep buying Chinese telecoms gear despite Washington’s warnings, report finds
- Federal regulations do not apply to US states, but Joe Biden’s administration has urged local leaders to align their policies with national security efforts
- At least 1,681 US state and local entities bought equipment and services from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera between 2015 and 2021, new study shows
Local and state governments in the US have continued to buy Chinese telecoms gear despite Washington’s efforts to purge the equipment from national supply chains, a new academic study has found.
The findings were released just weeks after reports that the US Federal Communications Commission will vote to block all new sales of Huawei and ZTE telecoms equipment on national security grounds.
There were 5,700 transaction involving a range of covered equipment, including smartphones, surveillance cameras, temperature scanners, handheld radios and networking equipment, the report said, with the purchases totalling US$45.2 million.
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Canada bans Huawei and ZTE 5G equipment, orders removal by 2024
Federal agencies are barred from procuring “substantial or essential components of any system” from the five Chinese tech firms over spying fears.
The report found that although the number of transactions has fallen since the ban was imposed in 2018, “there were still more than 600 procurements in 2021 and there is no indication the transactions have stopped”.