The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has thrown out a request from Chinese telco equipment maker ZTE to reconsider its status as a national security threat.
In June, the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau labelled ZTE and Huawei as threats[1], which barred equipment from the Chinese pair being used in rollouts funded by the FCC's Universal Service Fund.
ZTE filed on July 30 to have the decision overturned, but the FCC was unmoved.
"We deny ZTE's petition because it relies on arguments that have already been considered and rejected by the Bureau and does not demonstrate that the Bureau committed any material error or omission in its analysis," the FCC said in its order[2] [PDF].
"In general, reconsideration is appropriate only when the petitioner demonstrates a material error or omission in the underlying order or raises additional facts not known or not existing until after the petitioner's last opportunity to present such matters. Because ZTE fails to demonstrate that any of these situations are present ... we deny ZTE's petition."
The FCC said a number of times that ZTE failed to challenge any of its interpretations of Chinese law, particularly with regard to the law in Middle Kingdom that companies need to comply with requests from Beijing to use or access systems.
"ZTE challenges none of these facts. It does not raise any disagreement with how Chinese law should be interpreted, nor does it challenge our finding that, in practice, the control of China's authoritarian system would effectively prevent ZTE from refusing to follow an espionage demand from the Chinese government," the FCC said.
"Nor does ZTE dispute that its close ties to the Chinese government make it a particular threat to US national