China's Getting Blocked: Why Your iPhone Might Soon Cost More and Beijing Is Big Mad About It
From Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates by Inception Point Ai
May 1, 2026 · 4 min
About this episode
The episode discusses recent FCC decisions impacting Chinese companies and the broader implications for the US-China tech war.
This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast. Hey listeners, Alexandra Reeves here with your Beijing Bytes update on the escalating US-China tech war. Things have gotten intense over the past 48 hours, and the implications are massive for both nations. Let's start with what just happened. The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to bar all Chinese laboratories from testing electronic devices destined for the US market. We're talking smartphones, cameras, computers—everything. Currently, about 75 percent of all US electronics are tested in China, so this is a seismic shift. The FCC is streamlining approval for devices tested in American labs or facilities in reciprocal countries instead. FCC Chair Brendan Carr framed this as securing networks from what he called bad actors. But that's just the beginning. In a separate three-to-zero vote, the commission advanced a proposal to formally bar China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from operating data centers within the US. They're also prohibiting American carriers from interconnecting with companies on the national security Covered List, effectively cutting these firms off from the…
People in this episode
Host: Alexandra Reeves
Topics covered
- US-China tech war
- FCC regulations
- data security
- electronics testing
- telecommunications
Keywords
- FCC
- China
- electronics
- data centers
- telecom
- security
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Federal Communications Commission, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Twenty
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