Washington orders Chinese phone carrier out of US market

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. regulators are expelling a unit of China Telecom Ltd., one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers, from the American market as a national security threat amid rising tension with Beijing. China Telecom (Americas) Corp. is required to stop providing domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days, under an order approved by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC cited the danger that Beijing might use the company to eavesdrop or disrupt U.S. communications and “engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.” The FCC said in 2019 that due to security concerns it planned to revoke licenses to China Telecom and another state-owned carrier, China Unicom Ltd.