Biden extends US telecom supply chain order aimed at Huawei, ZTE

President Joe Biden on Thursday extended for another year a Trump-era executive order that declared a national emergency and prohibited U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment produced by firms posing a national security risk.

The 2019 order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which grants the president the authority to regulate commerce in response to a national emergency that threatens the U.S. 

In this instance, the order targeted Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE — part of an overarching effort to secure the country’s technology from companies potentially under the sway of adversarial governments.

The “unrestricted acquisition or use in the United States of information and communications technology or services designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries augments the ability of these foreign adversaries to create and exploit vulnerabilities in information and communications technology or services, with potentially catastrophic effects,” Biden said in a statement.

“This threat continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” the president added.