By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden signed Thursday legislation that would prevent ZTE Corp (HK.:) and Huawei Technologies Co (HK.) from receiving equipment licenses from U.S. regulators.

Secure Equipment, the U.S. government’s latest initiative to take down Chinese telecom and technology companies, was passed unanimously by both the U.S. Senate (on Oct. 28) and earlier by the U.S. House (on a 420-4 basis).

Biden and Xi Jinping will hold a virtual summit days after the signing. According to Reuters the meeting will take place Monday amid tensions around trade, military activities, and human rights.

New law directs the Federal Communications Commission to cease reviewing and approving any equipment authorization applications that pose an unacceptable threat to national security.

Brendan Carr, FCC commissioner said that more than 3000 applications have been approved by the commission since 2018, including those from Huawei. The law “will help to ensure that insecure gear from companies like Huawei and ZTE can no longer be inserted into America’s communications networks,” Carr said.

The FCC identified five Chinese companies in March as a threat for national security. This is according to a law from 2019 that protects U.S. networks.

The companies named included ZTE and Huawei previously, Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. and Zhejiang Technology Co.

In June, the FCC voted unanimously in favor of a plan that would ban equipment from U.S. telecom networks belonging to Chinese companies. Legislators were still pursuing legislation to require it.

Beijing voiced opposition to FCC voting in June.

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson from China’s foreign minister, stated that the United States “continues to abuse its national security power and state power in order to suppress Chinese businesses, even though there is no evidence.”

According to the rules proposed in June and approved by the FCC, it could also cancel prior equipment authorizations that were issued to Chinese businesses.

Huawei called June’s proposed FCC revision “misguided” and “unnecessarily punitive,” according to Huawei.

The FCC approved last month the cancellation of authorization for China Telecom’s U.S. affiliate to operate in the United States. This was due to national security concerns.