It was back in 2018 when Donald Trump targeted Huawei to make it the enemy. The reason, according to the White House at the time, was espionage. Huawei was spying on the United States through its 5G infrastructure. The reality, over the years, has become clear: Huawei was far ahead of American companies, and the dependence of the American giant on a key company of the Chinese government was unfeasible for Trump.
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Subscribe (it's FREE) ►This war ended recently, when Huawei, so expelled from the American ecosystem (and therefore expelled from Android), cut the last ties it had with the world’s most used operating system, owned by Google.
The war against Chinese companies did not end there, as the White House drew up a long list of Chinese companies that were suspected of collaborating with the Chinese government and posing a strategic threat to the United States. ZTE was one of those companies, along with Huawei and many others.
Approve a $3 billion budget to dismantle all Chinese infrastructure
The United States House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on the defense budget for 2025, which includes an allocation of 3 billion dollars to replace telecommunications equipment previously purchased from Huawei and ZTE.
According to Reuters, the equipment supplied by these companies poses security risks, especially because hackers affiliated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been conducting a massive cyber-espionage campaign to compromise private U.S. telecommunications companies.
Congress also wants an intelligence report describing Chinese espionage efforts and the country’s biotechnological capabilities.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has previously created the Supply Chain Reimbursement Program (also known as the Rip and Replace Program) endowed with $1.9 billion so that network operators with ten million or fewer customers can obtain reimbursement for the removal, replacement, and disposal of hardware and services supplied by Huawei and/or ZTE.
However, the agency has previously stated that the total cost of replacing everything could reach $4.98 billion. Therefore, the $3 billion added to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 should offset part of the deficit, helping more than 100 U.S. companies to dispose of potentially compromised equipment.
Although enormous, this amount is still not enough, as FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has urgently requested an additional $3.08 billion in funding from Congress. Thus, even if the FCC secures the full $3 billion, it will still need to provide another $80 million to cover the anticipated expenses.
Senator Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, stated that the funding for this program will come from the auction of the advanced AWS-3 wireless spectrum, so it will likely not be a direct burden on the average taxpayer.
Aside from that, all Huawei and ZTE equipment that needs to be disposed of must be replaced, likely with U.S.-made products from Cisco and other major networking companies.
Thus, if Congress approves the full amount, the U.S. telecommunications sector could finally be freed from the alleged threat posed by the use of Huawei and ZTE communications equipment.
