There is at least one thing President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump agreed on: Communications technology from foreign adversaries is a national security threat to the supply chain.
President Trump in May 2019 declared, via executive order, that securing information and communications tech services was a supply chain national emergency.
Also: FCC Takes Next Steps on Network Security
That national emergency status was scheduled to end on May 15, but President Biden has extended it for a year.
The White House said Thursday (May 12) that the potential catastrophic effects of such tech in U.S. communications networks remained an ongoing threat. “This threat continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” the White House said.
The dominance of Chinese telecoms in 5G network tech is one of the big issues in the supply chain conversation, which prompted the FCC and Congress to come up with a program to prevent government subsidies for such suspect tech, and weeding it out of current networks with a rip-and-replace program. ■
