U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk as they leave after a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 30, 2025. Reuters-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has shelved a number of key tech security measures aimed at Beijing ahead of an April meeting between the two countries' presidents. The measures include a ban on China Telecom's U.S. operations and restrictions on sales of Chinese equipment for U.S. data centers, sources said.
The U.S. has also put on hold proposed bans on domestic sales of routers made by TP-Link and the U.S. internet business of China Unicom and China Mobile along with another measure that would bar sales of Chinese electric trucks and buses in the U.S., four people said, declining to be named.
Those decisions have not previously been reported. They are the latest moves by the Trump administration to rein in U.S. government actions that could antagonize Beijing following a trade truce reached by China’s Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in October, the sources said.
That meeting also included a pledge by the Chinese to delay painful export restrictions on the rare-earth minerals that underpin tech manufacturing globally.
The Commerce Department defended its actions, saying it is actively using its authorities to "address national security risks from foreign technology, and we will continue to do so." While the administration's actions are likely aimed at helping to defuse trade tensions related to Trump's costly trade war, some critics say they also leave U.S. data centers and other technology vulnerable to Chinese threats as data center construction surges to meet exploding demand for AI.
"At a moment when we are desperately trying to remove ourselves from Beijing's leverage over rare-earth supply chains, it is ironic that we're actually letting Beijing acquire new areas of leverage over the U.S. economy – in telecoms infrastructure, in data centers and AI, and EVs,” said Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor during Trump's first term.
The Chinese Embassy said Beijing opposes "turning trade and technological issues into political weapons" while welcoming U.S. cooperation with China that could make 2026 "a year where our two major countries advance toward mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation." TP-Link Systems Inc., a California-based company that was spun off from a Chinese firm in 2024, emphasized that it is an independently owned American company, "with U.S.-managed software, U.S.-hosted data, and security practices that meet U.S. industry standards."
"Any suggestion that we are subject to foreign control or pose a national security risk is categorically false," it added. The White House and Chinese state-owned telecom giants China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom did not respond to requests for comment about the measures and why they are on hold. Trump plans to visit Beijing in April, and has invited Xi to visit the U.S. later in the year.
Some Democratic lawmakers objected to the shelving of the measures.
Source: Korea Times News
