FCC Defends China Telecom Revocation Order

The FCC told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit it rightly revoked China Telecom’s domestic and international authorities (see 2111150025). “The record shows that China Telecom’s control of U.S. communications infrastructure could be used to disrupt, misroute, or intercept U.S. communications at the behest of the Chinese government -- a finding that China Telecom’s brief neither acknowledges nor meaningfully disputes,” said a Thursday brief (docket 21-1233). The company’s “conduct and representations to government agencies and violations of commitments in its Letter of Assurances independently demonstrate a lack of trustworthiness and reliability required of companies operating critical telecommunications infrastructure,” the agency said.