Trump administration threats to act against Chinese software companies run “counter” to World Trade Organization “principles of openness, fairness, transparency and non-discrimination,” said a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Monday. “China firmly opposes that.” He urged the U.S. to “stop politicizing economic and trade issues" and practicing "discriminatory" policies "in the name of national security.” The “countless” Chinese software companies doing business in the U.S. are “feeding data directly” to China’s “national security apparatus,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday: President Donald Trump “will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party.” TikTok is being eyed by the administration (see 2008030027).

The Rural Wireless Association supported its “hybrid” four-phase approach for 5G Fund, in which the first $1.5 billion would be paid out quickly to carriers with 500,000 or fewer subscribers receiving legacy support (see 2006260057), in a meeting with FCC Office of Economics and Analytics staff. The approach “could allow faster deployment of 5G in areas where no 5G exists or is likely to exist (absent support),” RWA said in a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32.

New EU restrictions against China for its actions in Hong Kong include export controls on “sensitive” equipment and technologies for end-use in Hong Kong. The EU said it will more strictly scrutinize and limit exports of “specific” equipment and technologies for use in Hong Kong. Restrictions will specifically apply to items suspected to be used for “internal repression, the interception of internal communications or cybersurveillance.” China called the restrictions a violation of international norms. “Since the EU claims to have interests and concerns in Hong Kong … it should work in this direction with practical actions, rather than unilaterally introducing some so-called countermeasures to affect Hong Kong's prosperity and stability,” a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript of a news conference. The country's embassy in Washington didn't comment Thursday.

TikTok will disclose algorithms and content moderation policies in real-time, CEO Kevin Mayer blogged Wednesday. This is meant to “drive deeper conversations around algorithms, transparency, and content moderation, and to develop stricter rules of the road,” he wrote. He encouraged other tech companies to do the same: “All companies should disclose their algorithms, moderation policies, and data flows to regulators. We will not wait for regulation to come.”

Industry and some lawmakers applauded the U.S. loosening export restrictions on drones. The State Department's Friday announcement means it will no longer subject exports of certain unmanned aerial systems to a “strong presumption of denial,” instead imposing a case-by-case review policy on a “subset” of unmanned aircrafts that fly at speeds below 800 kph. The change “acknowledges the evolution” in unmanned aircraft technology, the Aerospace Industry Association said Monday. Northrop Grumman said the new export policy could benefit its “Fire Scout” helicopters, which are unmanned and autonomous. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, urged the administration to continue loosening export restrictions. Risch said “the permanent fix for this issue must be to treat unmanned aircraft the same as other aircraft for the purposes of export.” Committee ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called the move “reckless,” saying it may lead to the U.S. exporting unmanned aircraft to human rights abusers. It's “another reckless move by an administration fixated with eliminating the international cooperation that has made the United States and other countries safer for decades,” he said. U.S. export policy for unmanned aircraft was in “dire need of modernization,” the White House said.

Africa needs a unified policy approach to its domain name market, speakers said Monday at an ICANN virtual forum on the African domain name system. Among other problems are widely divergent charges for domain names, ranging $3-$500 across the continent, said Moctar Yedaly, African Union Commission information society division head. The COVID-19 pandemic offers lessons for the African continent, said South Africa Central Registry CEO Lucky Masilela. In addition to harmonizing domain prices, the sector must address issues of trust and security, he said. Africa is a youthful continent, and younger people must be empowered to have their own internet identities, he said. Business barrier issues are hampering DNS markets, said Ghana Dot Com Chairman and former ICANN board member Nii Quaynor. The DNS is a public good that exists only because people are willing to use its identifiers, he said: The DNS community must manage it responsibly to ensure the internet is stable, inclusive and accessible globally. Governments should foster a friendly policy environment to allow trust, and refrain from getting into managing top-level domains, he said. As Africa migrates business to the local internet, governments must address governance through more bottom-up, multistakeholder processes, Quaynor said. They must lower business barriers through such things as a continental free trade area, and should commit to using their own country-code domains, he said. It's in every administration's best interest to safeguard the DNS, said South Africa Domain Name Authority Chairperson Palesa Legoze, whose organization manages the .za ccTLD. Countries' whose country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)s have few registrants should look at the pricing and quality of service offered, she said. Governments can fund ccTLD managers until they're viable and have the volume of domain name registrations needed, she said. Nigeria has over 200 million people and not many domain names, but it's working to correct that through offering flexible policies and pricing, encouraging the hosting of local content and creating good content, said Nigeria Internet Registration Association Executive Secretary Edith Udeagu. Foreign domain names are viewed as better than local, so her organization tries to encourage enterprises to use .ng names and websites rather than just social media platforms, and tries to spur websites that host local content, she said. Quaynor warned against nationalism. A business that serves a particular area will want a domain that shows that, but Africa-wide companies should choose, for example, .africa or .com. Legoze urged Africans to coalesce on DNS policies, to "come together and speak with one voice."

The Bureau of Industry and Security has begun a broad review of new export controls on surveillance technologies going to China, which may also include additions to the agency’s entity list, said acting Commerce Department Undersecretary for Industry and Security Cordell Hull. Hull called the review “comprehensive” and “in-depth,” saying it could lead to controls over advanced surveillance tools, artificial intelligence software and biometric technologies. The effort included a business advisory for companies with supply chains in China’s Xinjiang region and a request for industry feedback on the impact of controls on facial recognition software and other surveillance technology (see 2007170024). “We have put the business community on notice,” Hull told Wednesday's U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing. Hull said BIS is pleased with the impact of its export control regime, saying the restrictions hurt China’s ability to source sensitive U.S technologies. “We believe it's working. We believe our entity listings have impacted millions of dollars of items going to these entities,” Hull said. China's embassy in Washington didn't comment Thursday.

A “key thing” about the Trade Act Section 301 tariff exclusions on Chinese goods that have been granted or extended is that most end Dec. 31, Nicole Bivens Collinson, Sandler Travis president-international trade and government relations, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Thursday. If President Donald Trump is reelected, she believes his administration “will view that as a mandate” for eradicating tariff exclusions permanently. As an importer, “I would be looking at January as having tariffs in place without any exclusions,” she said. If U.S.-China relations further deteriorate, Collinson fears the 7.5% List 4A tariffs will increase to 25%, she said. “We also have a List 4B that has no tariffs on them right now. That could change as well." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country wasn't “strong-armed” by the U.S. into recent actions against Beijing, saying the U.K. shares many of the same policy goals as the U.S. Instead, Raab said recent U.S. restrictions against Huawei and Chinese officials factored into U.K. policymaking. His country recently announced it's banning Huawei from its 5G network (see 2007140023). “The reality is as a result of U.S. sanctions, we’ve, of course, got to look with a clear-sighted perspective at what that means,” Raab told a news conference Tuesday in London with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The U.K.’s measures are “reflective" of what Prime Minister Boris Johnson believed was in "the best interests of the” British people, said Pompeo. He said he thinks Britain "made a good decision," not because the U.S. said it was a good decision but because U.K. leadership concluded it was "the right thing to do.”

The U.S. and Congress have a right to know if the administration is spying on people without “express congressional approval” and with weakened surveillance authorities, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Attorney General William Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe Tuesday. They requested information about how the administration has halted “mass surveillance programs authorized by now-expired Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) provisions under the USA FREEDOM Act” (see 2005270051). “Any surveillance conducted in the absence of statutory authorities and congressional oversight would be extraordinarily concerning and illegal,” they wrote. DOJ didn’t comment.