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A report claims that oversight of Chinese telecoms for security threats to the US communications supply chain is lacking and without adequate authority.
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The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released on Tuesday a report, “Threats to US Networks: Oversight of Chinese Government-owned Carriers.” The document slams the current government review process that oversees how Chinese telecom companies operate in the United States for not rigorously monitoring Chinese tech providers. It outlines a Senate investigation that began shortly after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in May 2019 denied a China Mobile USA application to provide international telecom services.

The subcommittee said it reviewed more than 6,400 pages of documents and conducted more than ten interviews, including interviews with representatives from the FCC, Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, ComNet, AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink. The subcommittee also said it met with researchers who analyzed the Chinese government’s use of telecommunications carriers to hijack communications.

The subcommittee’s investigation found that the FCC and “Team Telecom,” a formerly informal group composed of representatives from the DOJ, DHS and Department of Defense, have failed to adequately monitor three Chinese government-owned carriers, China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, and ComNet since they began operating in the United States in the early 2000s.

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