US digital fortress comes at a price

Not content with restricting Chinese chips, drones and telecommunications equipment, the Federal Communications Commission is extending its reach to telephone numbers, network connections and data centers.

The ambition is striking. So is the contradiction: in seeking to exclude Chinese companies from the US' digital infrastructure, some in Washington risk making that infrastructure more expensive, less efficient and less competitive.

On Thursday, the FCC voted to prohibit Chinese laboratories from testing electronic devices destined for the US market, with the ban taking effect in December 2028. It also plans to vote on Nov 19 on denying Chinese telecommunications operators direct access to US telephone numbers. Proposals to prevent Chinese carriers from connecting to US networks or operating data centers there remain under consideration.

The laboratory ban exposes the economic absurdity most clearly. According to Brendan Carr, the FCC's chairman, 82 percent of electronic devices authorized for sale in the US in 2025 were tested in China; just 4 percent were tested domestically. This arrangement did not emerge from Chinese coercion. US manufacturers embraced Chinese laboratories because they offered competitive prices, technical expertise and proximity to production.

Replacing that capacity will not be cheap. Testing costs could rise severalfold, while certification delays could stretch product-development schedules. Smaller electronics manufacturers, already squeezed by tariffs and supply-chain uncertainty, would suffer disproportionately. US consumers would eventually pay part of the bill. Industry groups, including the Consumer Technology Association, have warned of higher costs, diminished testing capacity and delayed product launches.

The proposed restrictions on network interconnection reveal another paradox. USTelecom, representing companies including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, has warned that severing links with Chinese carriers could reduce US operators' visibility into potentially risky traffic, pushing communications through less accountable intermediaries. A policy intended to tighten control over communications could instead make them harder to monitor.

The concerns extend beyond bilateral commerce. Two economies deeply embedded in global technology supply chains cannot disentangle their digital infrastructure without imposing costs on businesses elsewhere.

The timing is particularly unfortunate. Following progress in China-US economic and trade negotiations over tariffs, rare earths, agricultural trade, along with other things, Washington's renewed pressure on Chinese biotechnology companies this week and now telecommunications companies threatens to open fresh fronts of confrontation. The depth and breadth of modern industry should be a source of cooperative potential for both sides — not a space for the US to contain China.

The two countries have agreed on the vision for a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity. The US' attempts to constantly expand the list of restrictions hardly advance that vision.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun stressed on Friday that the actions taken by the US side run counter to the interests of all parties, and China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests.

Beijing placed Compliance Testing LLC, a US company assisting discriminatory FCC measures, on its countermeasure list in August. Further restrictions on US entities directly implementing such measures remain possible under Chinese law.

The longer-term danger is the emergence of two competing digital systems, each with its own certification rules, networks and market-access barriers. The US' restrictions are unlikely to extinguish Chinese technological innovation. They may instead accelerate the development of alternative infrastructure and standards beyond Washington's reach.

What is at stake is no longer simply who manufactures the next generation of chips or telecommunications equipment. It is who gets to build the networks, certify the products and write the rules governing global digital commerce. By turning these functions into instruments of geopolitical rivalry the US threatens the openness on which technological progress depends.

Broader mutual recognition of testing standards would be more sustainable and beneficial than severing connections wholesale.

Washington may discover that building a digital fortress is easier than ensuring that the businesses inside it can prosper.