China
FCC Doing ‘a top to bottom review of every’ Chinese Telecom Company In US, Says Commissioner Carr
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told The Sara Carter Show Monday that the Federal Communications Commission will proceed with the Department of Justice’s recommendation to fully investigate China Telecom Corp. over alleged espionage and is now conducting a top to bottom review of every single Chinese company operating in the United States telecommunications networks.
Amid concerns over Chinese failure to warn the world about the coronavirus pandemic, the DOJ on Thursday, issued a statement noting that interested “Executive Branch agencies unanimously recommended that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoke and terminate China Telecom (Americas) Corp.’s authorizations to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States.”
China Telecom, a U.S. subsidiary of a People’s Republic of China, is a state-owned telecommunications company of the communist government.
Carr said the Department of Justice’s recommendation that the FCC revoke the authority of China Telecom to connect to our telecommunications networks is currently being reviewed. He noted that years ago, under differing circumstances “China Telecom was authorized to connect to America’s telecom network.”
“What does that mean if you’re making a phone call or other data transmission from let’s say L.A. to D.C.? Well you may not know it but in that transmission path China Telecom could have a line in once that traffic hits the China Telecom line it has the potential to re-route that traffic back to China before then delivering it to D.C..”
“And we’ve seen some of that calls from L.A. go to China first then to D.C.,” Carr noted. “That’s not the most direct route. That gives us reason for concern and that’s why we’ve been taking concerted action at the FCC to stop new companies that are responding to the communist regime from connecting and why DOJ has recommended that we look at those companies that are already here.”
Last week, Carr took the Chinese government at their word stating to Chinese government spokesperson Hua Chunying on Twitter, that if the communist government has nothing to hide then he would like to speak with ‘disappeared citizen journalists’ and doctors from China who blew the whistle on the Chinese government and the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
2. Next, I’d like to speak with Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin – two video bloggers that tried to bring the world a glimpse of Wuhan unfiltered by your Communist regime.
Could you un-disappear them so we could speak?https://t.co/0ndiKKjQYZ
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) April 10, 2020
The DOJ said Thursday that it led the review of China Telecom’s authorizations. It based the recommendations on developments since the authorizations were last transferred in 2007, including China Telecom’s failure to comply with the terms of an existing agreement with the Department, according to the statement.
“Today, more than ever, the life of the nation and its people runs on our telecommunications networks,” said John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “The security of our government and professional communications, as well as of our most private data, depends on our use of trusted partners from nations that share our values and our aspirations for humanity. Today’s action is but our next step in ensuring the integrity of America’s telecommunications systems.”
When this reporter asked Carr “are you going to do it, do you think that you’re going to go right up on DOJ recommendations in an effort to squash China Telecom’s authorizations and work in the United States?”
Carr said, “we will certainly take up the recommendation and probably issue a show cause order here which would allow China Telecom some process to make their case -that’s why they think DOJ is wrong and then we’ll reach an ultimate decision very quickly.”
“I also think we should be reviewing and I’ve called for this and in some ways we’re already doing it a top to bottom review of every single company that could be controlled by the communist regime and where they should be continue to allow to connect to our network,” Carr added.
Carr stated that the Trump Administration has changed course from the approach taken by the Obama Biden administration, saying it was imperative that “we need to fundamentally rearrange our relationship with China.”
“You’re seeing it on the trade front you’re seeing on telecom with whether it’s China Telecom or Huawei or ZTE,” he told this reporter. “We are finally showing some strength whereas the prior approach was weak…And I think we have rightly shifted and I think COVID19 it is going to continue to turn us towards a stronger posture with China.”
During the podcast, Carr slammed China’s communist government’s response in covering up the coronavirus pandemic and its disappearing of many citizen journalists who warned early on about the severity of the virus. Looking ahead, he said that U.S. will need to fundamentally change our relationship with China.
China has a vast network of covert police stations abroad, according to a recent report by Safeguard Defenders, an NGO that focuses on human rights violations in China and other Asian countries. These police stations serve consular functions, but are also used by China to crack down on what the CCP deems “illegal” activity of Chinese nationals abroad. The police stations include at least 38 run by the Fuzhou City police, and 22 run by the Qingtian City police. Cities housing these police stations include New York, Toronto (which has three stations), London (two), Paris (three), Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro, and Tokyo.
Key findings of the report are below.
“Persuaded to return”
According to China, China has “persuaded to return [to China]” 230,000 Chinese nationals living aboard from April 2021 to July 2022 alone to face charges of fraud and telecommunications fraud. A Yangxia police station set up in Mozambique, for example, persuaded a Chinese national to return to China after being accused of stealing money from his employer. Chinese authorities also put pressure on the accused family to convince the accused to surrender.
Roughly 54,000 Chinese nationals were persuaded to return from northern Myanmar alone, in the first nine months of 2021. In July 2022, the government of Wenchang City warned that its citizens living in northern Myanmar must check in with their local police stations or face multiple penalties including blocking their children from attending urban schools back in China. Similarly, in February 2022, the government of Liayang City stated that Chinese “illegally staying” in northern Myanmar must return or the bank accounts of their immediate family members could be frozen.
The Nine Forbidden Countries
China has claimed that nine countries contain serious levels of fraud and telecom fraud perpetrated by Chinese nationals. Since November 2021, China has declared that Chinese citizens living in these nine countries must return to China immediately unless they have an “emergency reason” or a “strict necessity” to travel or stay in those countries. Those countries are: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, the UAE, and Turkey. However, the report questions whether these countries are truly awash in such fraud, as most of China’s oversees police stations are in the West, and only one of the nine countries (Cambodia) has such a police station. Chinese staying in the nine forbidden countries, as well as threats to family members as stated above, creates a “guilt-by-association” atmosphere intended to repatriate the Chinese nationals.
Conclusion
According to the report, Chinese police stations abroad serve to bypass “bilateral extradition treaties or other mechanisms of judicial cooperation” to cooperate with CCP-linked NGOs which effectively “[sets] up an alternative policing and judicial system within third countries.” Instead of using international judicial cooperation, which establishes due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial, China uses the above “persuade-to-return” methods and transnational police stations to circumvent international law and coerce Chinese nationals to return to China for trials. These policies show the power of China’s long-arm oppression over its own subjects.
You can follow Steve Postal on Twitter @HebraicMosaic
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