China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile were ordered by the Federal Communications Commission to halt their fixed or mobile broadband internet operations in the United States, further escalating tensions between the two countries.
Reuters reported, the order will also apply to another Chinese telecoms firm Pacific Networks and its subsidiary ComNet.
The Chinese companies must discontinue their services within 60 days from the net neutrality order approved on April 25.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the commission had evidence that the telecom operators were provisioning broadband services in the US, and it had cited national security concerns to revoke or deny Chinese firms to provide telecom services.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks pointed out China Telecom advertised on its website that it operates 26 points of presence in the US and offers colocation, broadband, IP transit, and data centre services.
The commission had stated national security concerns surrounding Chinese access to POPs located in data centres.
"They are interconnecting with other networks and have access to important Points of Presence and data centres," Starks said, urging "a closer look at the threats that adversarial providers pose to our data and data centres," said the FCC.
Previously the commission had denied requests by US companies to sell equipment to Huawei and ZTE stating it posed “an unacceptable risk” to national security.
TikTok on the clock
On another front of the trade war between the US and China, ByteDance, owner of popular social media app TikTok, prefers to shut down its app if all legal options are taken to prevent its ban on app stores in the US.
US officials touted the Chinese company selling its app and its algorithms to a US buyer, but ByteDance refuses to give up its core algorithm that recommends videos to users, as it is essential to its business, said a source speaking to Reuters.
Around 170 million users are recorded in the US. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said he expects the company to win a legal challenge to block legislation signed by president Joe Biden to ban the social media app. The legislation was launched on the grounds that it can access American citizen data or be used for surveillance.
