House Passes Bill to Require Public Companies to Disclose Use of Huawei, ZTE

The U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 23, 2023. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times

The House passed a bill on April 19 that would require the State Department to address the use of problematic telecommunications equipment and services by requiring publicly traded companies to disclose whether they use such equipment or services.

The final vote was 410-8. Four Republicans and four Democrats voted against the measure.

The bill means that public companies would be required to disclose annually if they use equipment or services from Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei, both of which are banned in the United States.

“Reporting has shown us how Huawei and ZTE operate as vehicles for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to commit human rights violations against the Uyghur people, conduct mass surveillance, and spread that technology to other authoritarian regimes,” said Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) in a statement after the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill in 2022. The Senate did not take it up.

“In the face of this threat, we need to redouble our efforts to protect our national security and interests, help our allies take vital measures for their own security, and stand firmly in defense of fundamental rights,” she added.

The bill would require the secretary of state to submit a report “on the prevalence of untrusted telecommunications equipment or services in the networks of United States allies and partners” to specific congressional committees within 180 days after the enactment of the bill and to do so annually for the next two years.

Those committees are House Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce Committees, Senate Foreign Relations, and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees.

The measure would also require the secretary of state to also submit a report to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “containing an assessment of the use of covered telecommunications equipment or services in United States embassies and by United States embassy staff and personnel.”

The bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would allow the State Department and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency “to provide diplomatic and technical support to countries that are working to secure their telecommunications infrastructure.”

Whether the bill is taken up by the Senate this time around is to be determined. It is publicly unknown whether President Joe Biden would sign or veto the bill were it to be sent to his desk.

The bill noted that “the Comptroller General of the United States has reported that 23 percent of all telecommunications device manufacturers of the Department of State have at least one supplier reported to be headquartered in the People’s Republic of China or the Russian Federation.”

In addition, the comptroller general “has reported that four percent of all telecommunications contractors of the Department of State have at least one supplier reported to be headquartered in the People’s Republic of China.”