The U.S. government recently announced that it issued multiple subpoenas to Chinese companies pursuant to an executive order that provides the U.S. government with the authority to review and prohibit or restrict transactions conducted by any person, or involving any property, subject to U.S. jurisdiction, if they involve certain categories of information and communications technology and services designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of certain foreign adversaries (including China and Russia) and pose an undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.
Under this authority, which is furtherance of a recent trend toward controlling acquisitions of foreign hardware and software, the U.S. government can require the unwinding of already completed transactions (for example, by requiring equipment already installed in a U.S. network be removed) and prohibit future transactions.
Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.