HKT Agrees to Cease U.S. Operations Under FCC Pressure

Under pressure from the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Hong Kong Telecom (HKT), a subsidiary of PCCW, agreed on Friday (October 30) to cease its business operations in the United States.

According to Reuters, the FCC said last October that, citing national security concerns and HKT's ties to one of its shareholders, China Unicom, it proposed revoking HKT's operating license in the United States.

According to a settlement agreement reviewed by Reuters, HKT agreed to stop providing international and domestic telecommunications services to and within the United States within 30 days.

PCCW has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment.

The agreement means the FCC will no longer pursue the license revocation proceeding.

Had that proceeding continued, it could have disclosed more details about U.S. national security concerns.

The FCC previously banned China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom from providing international telecommunications services to the United States on national security grounds.

U.S.

President Donald Trump's administration has continued to carry out a large-scale crackdown on Chinese telecommunications companies over the past year.

The FCC voted on Thursday (29th) to ban all Chinese laboratories from testing U.S. electronic products starting in December 2028.

The FCC also announced on Thursday that, on national security grounds, it plans to ban Chinese telecommunications companies from directly obtaining U.S. phone numbers.

In response to the testing and phone number bans, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the United States on Friday for overgeneralizing the concept of national security and abusing state power to unreasonably suppress Chinese companies, and said China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.

China's Ministry of Commerce also criticized the FCC on Friday over the laboratory restrictions, saying that for some time the FCC has ignored China's repeated representations, violated the important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries, and frequently introduced China-related restrictive measures, seriously harming the interests of China and other relevant trading partners, seriously damaging the stability of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, and seriously disrupting the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce also said that China had previously proposed negotiations on a "bilateral mutual recognition agreement" on multiple occasions, but the U.S. attitude had been extremely消极 and negative.

The spokesperson stressed that China's door to resolving issues through consultation is always open, and urged the United States to immediately revoke the relevant measures.