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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

China Telecom Plans to Continue Operations in the US Despite FCC Ban

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-telecom-plans-to-continue-operations-in-the-us-despite-fcc-ban_4192928.html

The logo for Chinese telecommunications firm China Telecom is seen on a booth at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing on Sept. 5, 2020. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

China Telecom said it plans to continue providing some services in the United States even after a U.S. regulator revoked its operating license in October last year, citing national security concerns. Experts have called on U.S. President Joe Biden to enact emergency powers to shut down the company’s operations.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October 2021 voted 4–0 to terminate China Telecom Americas’s (CTA’s) license to provide domestic and international services within the United States, ordering it to discontinue U.S. services by early January. The regulator said the firm “is subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government” and is “highly likely” to comply with Beijing’s orders.

In November 2021, CTA filed a petition for review (pdf) with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing against the FCC’s order to shut down its operations in the United States. According to Reuters, on Dec. 2, 2021 the court rejected the emergency bid to temporarily block the FCC order, which took effect on Jan. 3.

However, a CTA spokesperson said on Dec. 22, 2021 the company “will continue to operate its private carrier business in the U.S. after the Jan. 3 deadline,” according to Reuters.

In a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, CTA said the services it intends to continue do not fall under the FCC’s order requiring a halt to its common carrier operations. CTA argued that the services qualify as a private carrier.

“Absent a final factual determination and decision” from the FCC, the company intends to continue offering some services “on a private carrier basis … to honor its contractual obligations and avoid undue disruption to its customers’ operations.”

US President’s Emergency Powers
James Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, told The Epoch Times that China Telecom’s stubborn resistance will not change the outcome of its final departure.

“They can challenge the FCC order, which is what they’re doing. [But] the risk for them is that the [U.S. president] can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to block it,” Lewis said.

The IEEPA provides the U.S. president with broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency, according to the Congressional Research Service (pdf).

On May 15, 2019, then-U.S. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency with IEEPA, prohibiting U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment produced by companies that may endanger U.S. national security. On the same day, the United States put Huawei and 70 related companies on a blacklist and banned them from purchasing parts and components from American companies without U.S. government approval.

In a statement released on Oct. 26, 2021, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said that CTA’s ownership and control fall directly under the Chinese regime, raising significant national security and law enforcement risks. The company’s operations provide opportunities for the Chinese Communist Party to access, store, disrupt, or misroute U.S. communications, allowing them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.

Like other Chinese carriers, CTA must disclose sensitive customer information when required by the Chinese regime, and its U.S. records are already available to its non-U.S. affiliates abroad. According to public accounts, CTA’s network has misrouted large amounts of information and communications traffic outside of the United States over long periods, sometimes involving U.S. government traffic.

“I think the U.S. government is very concerned about China Telecom, but it’s taken [the Biden administration] a long time to tell it to stop operating,” Lewis said.

Lewis added that courts need to decide whether the services that CTA continues to provide fall within the scope of the FCC ban or not. However, while CTA challenges the FCC order, the process could be drawn out and allow it more time to continue operation.

“[CTA] can continue to operate [under these circumstances] only if the president does not use his IEEPA sanction authority,” Lewis added, suggesting that an emergency order from Biden could solve the problem immediately.

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