CHINA / DIPLOMACY
US companies, people affected by crackdown on Chinese firms, says official
Published: Jun 17, 2022 10:23 PM
US CHINA

US China


Companies and people in the US will have to "swallow the bitter pill" of the US' unreasonable crackdown on Chinese companies, a senior Chinese official said on Friday following news that removing equipment from Chinese tech companies like Huawei from US telecom networks will come at a hefty cost. 

According to a Reuters report, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimated that the cost of removing the equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE Corp is $5.3 billion, much higher than what Congress has set aside.

The FCC also noted that it had found deficiencies in two-thirds of applications to reimburse US carriers for removing equipment from Chinese companies deemed national security threats, the report said. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday that some US politicians have generalized the concept of national security and used national power to unreasonably crack down upon certain Chinese companies out of self-interest. But it is US companies and residents who will bear the brunt. According to Wang, the US has continuously politicized and weaponized economic cooperation, as well as coercing other countries to ban Chinese enterprises' equipment. 

Such deeds not only damage Chinese companies' interests, but also seriously hurt those of the US, while severely impacting the stability of global industrial chains and supply chains. 

"US politicians are moving against the current, and must fail in the end," Wang said. 

China also urged the US to change its policies and provide an open, fair, nondiscriminatory business environment for Chinese companies, he noted.

The US government has launched a reimbursement program, colloquially known as the “Huawei Rip & Replace” program to reimburse service providers for the cost of replacing equipment and services that pose a threat to national security. 

The FCC previously designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks and barred US firms from purchasing equipment from the two companies.