The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has intensified its stance on Chinese tech and telecom vendors, widening its ban on imports of Chinese-made network equipment.

Suppliers like Huawei and ZTE are already subject to the agency’s Covered List, which bars equipment and managed services from vendors deemed to pose unacceptable risks to U.S. national security.

The FCC’s clampdown looks to continue, with a notice published at the end of last week (June 26) seeing the agency move to close regulatory loopholes it claims could have allowed barred vendors from maintaining access to U.S. critical infrastructure.

The update sees equipment that received FCC authorization before 2022 subject to being barred, including systems used “for the purpose of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes.”

The FCC said in a notice that the national security considerations “outweigh the economic and supply chain concerns.” The updated import rules will come into effect in July.

The move marks the latest in a growing number of China-centric measures taken by the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr.

In May, it closed another potential loophole that provided automatic “blanket” authorizations to domestic carriers, contending it could have allowed Covered vendors to provide services for domestic interstate telecom operators.

The agency has also imposed a ban on imports of foreign-produced routers, claiming devices containing components produced outside the U.S. posed a national security concern in the wake of the infamous Salt Typhoon attacks. That ban was later extended to cover consumer-grade LTE/5G customer premises equipment (CPE) and Wi-Fi hot spot devices.

The Carr-led administration’s counter-China efforts also include taking on so-called “bad labs,” or network equipment suppliers supplying false test results. It’s also looking at imposing tougher measures on Chinese telecom companies operating data centers in the U.S., including barring U.S. carriers from connecting with those Chinese facilities.

Just last week, the FCC’s revised subsea cable rules also included provisions to make it harder for Chinese companies to supply equipment for cable projects.