FCC ignored China

A new Senate report has revealed that the Federal Communications Commission has failed spectacularly when it comes to monitoring Chinese telecom companies.

The result of a year-long investigation, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations “found that the FCC and ‘Team Telecom’ — an informal group comprised of officials from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Defense — have failed to monitor” three major Chinese government-owned carriers that have “operated in the U.S. for nearly 20 years with little to no oversight from the federal government.”

And, according to the report, the Chinese government’s history of cyber and economic espionage means that it “may use telecommunications carriers operating in the United States to further these efforts.”

The FCC and Team Telecom took a “hands-off” approach to its overview of the three Chinese telecommunications companies. Changes in ownership and structure that should have thrown a red flag resulted in no reviews or additional monitoring.

It was only in 2017, after concerns related to China Telecom Americas’ store of U.S. customer data, that “substantive oversight” began. Even then, “Team Telecom appears to have relied on CTA’s written representations” regarding the data storage, according to the Senate report.

These actions, or lack thereof, are inexcusable. The FCC has failed to uphold its duty to protect the United States from bad actors it should be policing.

But Congress is also culpable. It took 20 years for Congress to realize that the FCC was not fulfilling its duties. Congress has essential oversight powers that it must exercise to ensure that agencies are responsibly performing their duties.

This incident, a failure all around, speaks to the need for motivated and attentive leadership in our federal bureaucracy, as well in Congress.