The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China made a rare exercise of its subpoena power on Wednesday (April 23), demanding that China's three largest telecom companies cooperate and provide information regarding their possible involvement in an investigation into their alleged assistance to the Chinese military and government.
According to a post on Twitter by the ad hoc committee, Chairman Mullenauer issued subpoenas to China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, demanding they answer whether they could access U.S. data through their cloud and internet services in the United States. The post also noted that the committee had requested information from the three companies on March 4th, but they had completely ignored the request.
In 2019, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in the United States, and revoked the operating licenses of China Telecom and China Unicom in 2021 and 2022. However, all three companies still maintain limited operations in the United States, such as providing cloud services and routing wholesale network traffic in the United States.
According to Reuters, three similar notification letters sent on the 23rd stated that the information obtained by the special committee showed that these companies "can still maintain network nodes (Points of Presence), data center access rights and cloud-related services in the United States through subsidiaries or affiliates."
Following several previous Chinese-led cyberattacks, such as Volt Typhoon, which the FBI said allowed China to penetrate U.S. telecommunications, energy, water resources, and other critical infrastructure, members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties have since maintained concerns about the operations of Chinese telecommunications companies in the United States.
U.S. regulators and lawmakers are concerned that the three companies could access personal information and intellectual property stored on their cloud services and provide it to the Chinese government or block Americans from accessing the data.
According to the letter seen by Reuters, the three telecom companies must fully cooperate with the investigation by May 7, otherwise the U.S. Congress may hold them accountable for contempt of Congress.
