Recently, the US government has once again targeted Chinese electronic products, launching a large-scale “clean-up” campaign. Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), stated publicly that major US e-commerce platforms have removed millions of banned Chinese electronic products from their shelves.
It is understood that the products taken down by e-commerce platforms this time are either on the US banned equipment list or have not obtained sales authorization from the FCC. These include household security cameras and smart watches produced by companies such as Huawei, Hangzhou Hikvision, ZTE, and Dahua Technology.
In fact, as early as 2022, the FCC had already issued a ban prohibiting the sale of new products from these companies in the US market. Hikvision previously stated publicly that revenue from its US business accounts for less than 3% of the company’s overseas revenue, and less than 1% of its total global revenue. Dahua Technology also clearly stated that it has withdrawn from the US market.
Industry insiders said that the products removed this time generally have two obvious characteristics: first, their names or descriptions contain keywords of the banned brands; second, they belong to categories strictly regulated by the FCC.
Although sales of brands like Hikvision and Dahua in the US market have dropped significantly, some merchants on e-commerce platforms still use keywords of these well-known brands in their product information to boost sales by exploiting loopholes. In addition, some products may have been put on sale in advance before completing FCC certification procedures.
Notably, the FCC’s actions go beyond just removing products from shelves. In addition to forcing major US e-commerce platforms to take down millions of Chinese electronic products, it also plans to expand the ban. Brendan Carr said a vote will be held on October 28. If the vote passes, any device containing components from companies on the blacklist will not be able to obtain FCC authorization in the future. Even “existing” devices that have already obtained authorization and are in use may be banned.
If this policy is actually implemented, not only Chinese enterprises will be affected, but many overseas enterprises may also be implicated. For example, a survey by ArcadianAI found that Hikvision and Dahua are deeply involved in many links of the security industry (the security industry chain mainly includes algorithms, chips, structural parts, and components). This involves security brands such as Australia’s Swann, US-based Night Owl, Amcrest, LTS, and Canada’s Lorex, all of which have cooperative ties with them.
Currently, the US market remains an important part of the global overseas market and is the world’s largest single market for surveillance equipment sales. However, as FCC policies become increasingly strict, Chinese-manufactured products will face greater challenges in going global.
