US Investigates Chinese Telecom Carriers for Alleged Data Transfer to Beijing

According to Reuters, the United States is probing whether China’s major state-controlled telecommunications companies are transferring American data to Beijing via their US cloud services.

The Commerce Department is conducting an investigation into China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp., and China Unicom, subpoenaing information from the three firms with risk-based analysts, but it was reported that the progress on Unicom only saw slight progress.

US government agencies have long cautioned against security risks associated with Chinese state-owned telecom firms. In 2022, Washington made the decision to expel Unicom from the US market following the previous prohibition of China Mobile. The companies, along with their legal representatives in the US, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.