The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to vote on a proposal that would bar China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from operating data centers in the United States and from interconnecting their networks with US carriers. The vote, expected on April 30, would represent a significant escalation of the US campaign to remove Chinese telecommunications infrastructure from American networks, moving beyond the ban on direct consumer services that has been in place since 2021 to target the underlying internet infrastructure and interconnection protocols that Chinese telecoms use to route international traffic. The proposal, if adopted, would force the three state-owned companies to divest or shut down their US-based infrastructure within a transition period expected to run 6 to 12 months. EastFrontier earlier reported that the FCC will vote to ban Chinese labs from testing US electronics.
What the FCC Is Proposing
The proposal has two components. The first would prohibit the three Chinese state-owned telecoms from establishing, operating, or maintaining data centers on US soil. All three companies currently operate data centers in the US that serve business customers, particularly Chinese companies with US operations and multinational corporations that need to route traffic between the US and China. A ban would require them to sell or transfer those facilities.
The second component would prohibit US carriers from entering into or maintaining network interconnection agreements with the three Chinese telecoms. Interconnection agreements are the commercial arrangements that allow different networks to exchange traffic. They are the plumbing of the global internet. Banning US carriers from interconnecting with China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom would effectively cut those companies out of the US internet routing infrastructure, forcing international traffic to route through third-country intermediaries.
The National Security Rationale
The FCC’s rationale centers on the national security risks posed by Chinese state-owned telecoms operating within US network infrastructure. All three companies are on the FCC’s Covered List of entities deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to US national security. China Mobile and China Unicom had their US operating licenses revoked in 2021 and 2022, respectively; China Telecom’s license was revoked in 2021. But license revocation addressed their ability to sell services directly to US consumers. It did not address their data center operations or their network interconnection relationships.
The FCC’s new proposal argues that these remaining footholds represent ongoing security risks: Chinese state-owned telecoms operating US data centers could potentially access or intercept traffic passing through those facilities, and interconnection relationships give them visibility into US network topology and traffic patterns. The proposal draws on classified intelligence assessments that the FCC has not made public but says demonstrate specific risks associated with Chinese telecom infrastructure.
Industry and Legal Implications
Harry Wang Yuxiang, a partner at Tahota Law Firm who advises Chinese companies on US regulatory matters, told SCMP that the proposal represents “an escalation from banning direct services to controlling underlying internet infrastructure and interconnection protocols.” He noted that the affected companies would have limited legal options to challenge the FCC’s authority, given the proposal’s national security framing.
The practical implications for Chinese companies with US operations are significant. Many rely on China Telecom’s US data centers for latency-sensitive applications that require physical infrastructure close to US customers. An abrupt forced exit would require them to migrate to alternative providers, a process that could take months and carry significant cost. Multinational companies that use Chinese telecom infrastructure to route traffic between the US and China would also face disruption, potentially having to renegotiate contracts and reconfigure network architectures.
The April 30 Vote and What Comes Next
The FCC vote on April 30 is expected to pass along party lines, with the Republican majority supporting the proposal. If adopted, the rules would likely include a transition period for affected companies to divest or transfer their US assets. The proposal is part of a broader pattern of FCC actions targeting Chinese telecommunications equipment and services, including a separate proposal to ban Chinese testing laboratories from certifying US electronic devices. Together, these actions represent a systematic effort to remove Chinese companies from every layer of the US telecommunications infrastructure, from consumer services to network equipment to the underlying internet routing architecture. For China, the FCC’s escalating actions reinforce a strategic imperative Beijing has pursued for years: building domestic internet infrastructure that does not depend on US-controlled routing or US-based data centers. The irony is that US actions to exclude Chinese telecoms from American networks may accelerate China’s own efforts to build a more self-contained internet infrastructure, deepening the fragmentation of the global internet rather than securing it. Each escalatory step by the FCC provides Beijing with additional justification for its own internet sovereignty agenda, and the cumulative effect of years of mutual exclusion is a global internet increasingly divided along geopolitical lines rather than governed by shared technical standards. Whether that outcome better serves US security interests than a more integrated, but monitored, global network is a question policymakers have not fully answered.