What to Make of New U.S. Actions Against Foreign Telecoms

On April 4, President Trump signed an executive order on “Establishing the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector,” and several Executive Branch agencies followed up by recommending that the FCC “revoke and terminate China Telecom (Americas) Corp.’s authorizations to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States.” These actions demonstrate that current American efforts to limit the influence of the Chinese telecommunications sector are much broader than just the well-publicized targeting of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.