The United States imports telecommunications hardware from companies like Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Hytera, and Dahua, but many of its upcoming security cameras and radio hardware won’t be accepted. It’s a major matter because the Federal Communications Commission has just declared it will no longer approve some of their equipment. After all, without that approval, businesses cannot lawfully import or sell anything with a radio in the US.
These businesses weren’t already outlawed. Not quite. You surely recall how the Trump administration made Chinese telecom businesses feel less than welcome by accusing companies like Huawei, ZTE, and DJI of posing a threat to national security and adding them to the “Entity List” of the Commerce Department. Even though that had consequences, their products weren’t truly kept out of the United States. For instance, purchasing a DJI drone wasn’t difficult for you.
The Entity List only goes so far
What the Entity List does is keep US companies from exporting technology to those Chinese companies, not the other way around. It could have impacted the availability of Android updates on Huawei phones, for example, because Android provider Google is a US company. And, other government groups can take their cues from the Entity List as well. Government agencies have had a way harder time spending federal dollars to buy Chinese equipment for a while now.
“[O] nce we have determined that equipment from certain manufacturers poses an unacceptable national security risk, it makes no sense to allow that same equipment to be purchased and inserted into our communications networks as long as federal dollars are not involved,” reads part of a statement from FCC commissioner Brendan Carr.
And while the FCC has its own “Covered List” of companies that it considers a national security threat — and ordered network operators to rip out and replace all their Huawei and ZTE equipment at a likely cost of billions — the agency hadn’t yet kept companies from importing or selling those products into the United States.
When Best Buy and Home Depot stopped selling Dahua and Hikvision security cameras, it wasn’t because the government ordered them to stop. Those stores simply didn’t want to be associated with reported human rights violations. You can still find both brands on Amazon.
But even Amazon won’t be able to legally sell newer products if the FCC doesn’t grant its authorization. Every radio-frequency product imported for sale in the United States goes into the FCC OET database (which is one of the reasons that eagle-eyed gadget lovers can use it to reveal unannounced new products). If you’re not in that database, you can’t import mass quantities of a product for sale.
Yet, when it comes to Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua security cameras, they may just need to brand their products more carefully to escape a ban. Technically, the FCC is only denying authorization to equipment designed “for public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes.”
“For these three companies, we will require them to document what safeguards they will put in place on marketing or sale for these purposes,” reads part of a statement from FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel. “[W] e are putting in place a freeze on all of their telecommunications and video surveillance equipment authorization applications until that work is done.”
So if they agree to market the cams to consumers, or small businesses, they can probably be imported and sold just fine. Also, it’s not like the FCC is revoking authorizations for existing products.
The FCC isn’t closing this loophole all by itself; it was ordered to do so by the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, which just says that the FCC won’t review any authorization applications submitted by any company on that Covered List. That means it’ll be a big deal when any new companies arrive on the list, too.
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