[路透社]美国正对中国三大运营商展开风险调查

据报导，3名因调查尚未公开而不愿具名的知情人士说，美国商务部正在进行调查，他们已向这些获中国支持的公司发出传票，并已完成对中国移动和中国电信“基于风险的分析”，但对中国联通的调查进展较慢。

美国电信监管机关禁止这3家公司在美国提供手机和零售网络服务，但他们在美国仍然有小规模业务，像是提供云端服务及替美国批发网络流量提供路由服务，这使得他们仍然能够取得美国民众的数据。

中国移动、中国电信和中国联通及他们在美国委任的律师并未回应路透社置评请求。美国司法部拒绝评论，白宫将记者提问转交商务部，而商务部也拒绝置评。中国驻华盛顿大使馆表示，希望美国“停止以不实的借口打压中企”，还说中国将持续捍卫中企的权利与利益。

路透社并未发现任何证据显示这3间公司刻意提供敏感美国数据数据给中国政府，或是犯下任何形式的不当行为。

这项调查是华盛顿为阻止北京利用中企取得美国数据，进而伤害公司、美国民众或**的最新举措，也是加深美中这两个地缘政治对手之间技术战的一环。调查显示，美国政府正试图关闭已遭锁定的中企剩余途径，以防取得美国数据。

两名知情人士指出，监管机关尚未决定如何处理潜在威胁，但监管机关握有权限，能调查“外国敌对势力”国家公司卖至美国的网络服务，可以阻止这些公司在美国数据中心运作或替网络提供商传输数据的交易。

网络分析公司Kentik的路由专家马都里（Doug Madory）说：“他们是我们的全球头号对手，而且他们相当老练。”

路透社指出，中国电信、中国移动和中国联通长久以来一直是美方锁定的目标。美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）2019年拒绝了中国移动在美提供电话服务的申请，并分别于2021年和2022年撤销中国电信和中国联通在美提供电话服务的许可。

今年4月，美国联邦通信委员会进一步禁止这3家中企提供宽带服务。联邦传播委员会发言人表示，委员会坚持其关切此事的立场。

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – The Biden administration is investigating China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom over concerns the firms could exploit access to American data through their U.S. cloud and internet businesses by providing it to Beijing, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Authorities at the Commerce Department are running the investigation, which has not been previously reported. They have subpoenaed the state-backed companies and have completed "risk-based analyses" of China Mobile (0941.HK), opens new tab and China Telecom (0728.HK), opens new tab, but are not as advanced in their probe of China Unicom (0762.HK), opens new tab, the people said, declining to be named because the probe is not public.
The companies still have a small presence in the United States, for example, providing cloud services and routing wholesale U.S. internet traffic. That gives them access to Americans’ data even after telecom regulators barred them from providing telephone and retail internet services in the United States.
The Chinese companies and their U.S.-based lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment and the White House referred questions to Commerce, which declined to comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it hopes the United States will "stop suppressing Chinese companies under false pretexts," adding that China will continue to defend the rights and interests of Chinese companies.
Reuters found no evidence the companies intentionally provided sensitive U.S. data to the Chinese ** or committed any other type of wrongdoing.
The investigation is the latest effort by Washington to prevent Beijing from exploiting Chinese firms’ access to U.S. data to harm companies, Americans or national security, as part of a deepening tech war between the geopolitical rivals. It shows the administration is trying to shut down all remaining avenues for Chinese companies already targeted by Washington to obtain U.S. data.
Regulators have not yet made decisions about how to address the potential threat, two of the people said. But, equipped with the authority to probe internet services sold into the U.S. by companies from "foreign adversary" nations, regulators could block transactions allowing them to operate in data centers and route data for internet providers, the sources said.
Blocking key transactions, in turn, could degrade the Chinese firms’ ability to offer competitive American-facing cloud and internet services to global customers, crippling their remaining U.S. businesses, experts and sources said.
"They are our chief global adversary and they are very sophisticated," said Doug Madory, an internet routing expert at internet analysis firm Kentik. "I think (U.S. regulators) would not feel like they were doing their job if they weren’t trying to shore up every risk."
ROUTING THROUGH CHINA
China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom have long been in Washington’s crosshairs. The FCC denied China Mobile’s application to provide telephone service in 2019 and revoked China Telecom and China Unicom’s licenses to do the same in 2021 and 2022 respectively. In April, the FCC went further and barred the companies from providing broadband service. A spokesman for the FCC said the agency stands by its concerns.
One factor in the FCC’s decision was a 2020 report from other U.S. ** agencies that recommended revoking China Telecom’s license to provide U.S. telephone service. It cited at least nine instances where China Telecom misrouted internet traffic through China, putting it at risk of being intercepted, manipulated or blocked from reaching its intended destination.
"China Telecom’s U.S. operations… provide Chinese **-sponsored actors with openings to disrupt and misroute U.S. data and communications traffic," authorities said at the time.
China Telecom has previously denied the **’s allegations and told U.S. agencies that routing problems are common and occur on all networks.
The telecoms company sought to reverse the FCC decision, but a U.S. appeals court rejected its arguments, noting that the agencies presented "compelling evidence that the Chinese ** may use Chinese information technology firms as vectors of espionage and sabotage."
ACCESS POINTS, CLOUD UNDER SCRUTINY
The Chinese telecoms companies’ reach extends deep inside the U.S. internet infrastructure.
According to its website, China Telecom has 8 American Points of Presence (PoPs) that sit at internet exchange points, which allow large-scale networks to connect to each other and share routing information.
China Telecom did not respond to requests for comment about its U.S. based PoPs.
According to the FCC, there are "serious national security and law enforcement risks" posed by PoPs when operated by firms that pose a national security risk. In cases where China Telecom’s PoPs reside in internet exchange points, the company "can potentially access and/or manipulate data where it is on the preferred path for U.S. customer traffic," the FCC said in April.
Bill Woodcock, executive director of Packet Clearing House, the inter**al treaty organization which is responsible for the security of critical Internet infrastructure, said traffic flowing through these points would be vulnerable to metadata analysis, which can capture key information about the data’s origin, destination, size and timing of delivery. They also might allow for deep packet inspection, where parties can glimpse the data’s contents, and even decryption.
Commerce investigators are also probing the companies’ U.S. cloud offerings, the focus of the 2020 referral from the Justice Department on China Mobile, China Telecom and Alibaba that prompted the investigations, the people said. The probe was later expanded to include PoPs and China Unicom, whose cloud business was small at the time of the referral, two of people added. Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment.
Regulators fear that the companies could access personal information and intellectual property stored in their clouds and provide it to the Chinese ** or disrupt Americans’ access to it, two of the sources said.
Commerce department officials are particularly concerned about one data center that is part owned by China Mobile in California’s Silicon Valley, according to one of the sources.
China Mobile did not respond to requests for comment about the data center.
Reuters could not determine the reason for the **’s specific interest in China Mobile’s data center, but ownership of one provides greater opportunity to mishandle client data, according to Bert Hubert, a Dutch cloud computing expert and former member of a board that regulates Dutch Intelligence and security agencies.
He noted that ownership would make it easier to meddle with clients’ servers at night, for example, by installing backdoors to enable remote access or bypass encryption. Those actions would be much tougher in a data center with strict security policies where the company merely leases space.
"If you have your own data center you have your own unique piece of China within the U.S.," he said.