FCC Launches National Security Unit to Counter China Threats

Goals of the unit include reducing U.S. dependency on Chinese telecom products, preventing cyber attacks, and securing a win in tech rivalry with China.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in Washington on March 11, 2024. Jack Hsu/The Epoch Times

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set up a new national security unit to counter threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other foreign adversaries.

Launching the Council for National Security (CNS) on March 13, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the United States is facing “a persistent and constant threat from foreign adversaries, particularly the CCP.”

“These bad actors are always exploring ways to breach our networks, devices, and technology ecosystem. It is more important than ever that the FCC remain vigilant and protect Americans and American companies from these threats,” he said.

The CNS will be tasked with helping the chairman reach a three-part goal in coordination with national security personnel across the government and in Congress.

The goals include reducing trade and supply chain dependency of the U.S. technology and telecommunications sector on U.S. foreign adversaries; preventing cyber attacks, espionage, and surveillance by foreign adversaries; and ensuring a U.S. victory in its competition with China across a range of technologies, including telecommunication, artificial intelligence, space technology, quantum computing, robotics, and the Internet of Things.

The CNS will be headed by Adam Chan, former associate at law firm Boyden Gray PLLC. Other members will be drawn from eight FCC bureaus and offices.

“Because these threats now cut across a range of sectors that the FCC regulates, it is important that the FCC’s national security efforts pull resources from a variety of FCC organizations,” Carr said.

In a post on X, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party congratulated Carr and Chan, formerly a national security legal fellow for the committee, saying they are “the right leaders” for the new unit.

“We look forward to working with them to better protect our critical infrastructure from the Chinese Communist Party,” the statement reads.

Over the past years, China-backed cyber espionage groups, including Flax Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon, and Silk Typhoon, have launched a series of cyber attacks against targets around the globe, including U.S. government officials, politicians, telecom networks, and the Treasury’s infrastructure.

In a testimony at an “End the Typhoons” hearing held by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on March 5, former National Security Agency director of cybersecurity Rob Joyce said U.S. defenses “are not keeping pace” with the Chinese regime’s “comprehensive cyber campaign against the United States.”

“Chinese state hackers prepositioned malware within our power grids, pipelines, water treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure. They tapped into our telecommunications to spy on us, stole the innovations of technological research and breached the cloud systems holding government emails.

“They even unfairly exploit our open markets to achieve a growing advantage inside the technology we rely upon for our communications. After a decade of using cyber to steal industrial and military secrets, they’ve evolved to far more threatening penetrations of our nation’s infrastructure. They run cyber operations deliberately intended to create ’societal panic' at the time of escalating tensions. Planning cyber terrorism is a direct threat to our national security and economy,” he said.

Joyce added that the Chinese regime is also undercutting the U.S. market to sell CCP-controlled technologies into U.S. homes, “raising significant national security concerns.”

He urged decision-makers to focus on the “three pillars” of deterrence, defense, and resilience.