‘Trump executive order could ban Chinese equipment-makers in US’

Washington, Feb 10 (IANS) US President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order next week, banning American carriers from using equipment from Chinese technology players, the media reported on Sunday.

The decision is expected to be announced ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 25, the Android Police reported.

"Both the White House and Congress have been trying to ban networking infrastructure from Chinese companies for months," the report said.

Chinese tech giant Huawei has been in bad light after the US Justice Department last month filed a host of criminal charges, including bank fraud, obstruction of justice and theft of technology against the company and its detained Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou.

Apart from Huawei, ZTE has also been listed to be banned from being used by network operators in the US.

The US has long suspected and often accused the Chinese government of encouraging trade secret theft as a way to build up its own industries which has reportedly prompted the US administration to take such drastic measures.

"Government officials are mainly targeting Huawei and ZTE's network infrastructure business, so the sale of phones and tablets to US consumers would likely not be affected," the report said.

Earlier in January, an Apple engineer of Chinese origin -- Jizhong Chen -- was found to have been attempting to leak confidential intellectual information about the company's secret autonomous vehicle programme to a China-based autonomous vehicle company where he had applied for a job as well.