Chinese telecommunication company Huawei has filed a 39-page comment with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that the U.S. government has unfairly denied Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies equal access to American markets. Huawei submitted the comment for the FTC’s scheduled hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century,” which are due to begin this month. The letter accuses American regulators of restricting Huawei’s ability to sell its products within the U.S. for protectionist economic reasons, ostensibly justifying those restrictions on national security grounds; it encourages the FTC to counsel other government agencies against additional regulation. Huawei cited several examples of American “anti-competitive” measures, including the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Trump last month, which prohibits federal agencies from purchasing equipment from Huawei and fellow Chinese telecom giant ZTE, as well as the FCC's proposal to ban U.S. carriers from using federal money to buy from Huawei or ZTE. Huawei filed a separate version of the letter to the FCC proposal, supplementing it with expert testimony. The proposal is currently receiving public comment.

Huawei’s international struggles are not limited to the United States; last week, the Australian government, citing national security concerns, announced that it would block Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment for that country’s 5G network. The decision earned a strong response from the Chinese government, which warned that the ban was the “wrong decision” and could sour Australia and China’s commercial relationship. Huawei independently denied any basis for Australia’s national security concern, reasserting its autonomy from the Chinese government and contending that Australia’s decision was “politically motivated.” Other U.S. allies may soon join Australia; the Japanese government has launched a study into whether use of Chinese telecom equipment ought to be restricted, and a U.K. government report published in July found “only limited assurance” that Huawei’s equipment did not pose risks to national security. The 2019 U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Trump last month, prohibits federal agencies from purchasing equipment from Huawei and ZTE.

ZTE will have some cause for celebration, as its shares have rebounded since it struck a deal with the Commerce Department to avoid potentially crippling sanctions in July. Those gains came despite a $1.1 billion loss in the first half of 2018, when ZTE was forced to shut down operations after the Commerce Department instituted a denial order against the company. Those operations have now fully resumed, and ZTE is projecting a profit during the upcoming quarter. Its operations will closely observed by Roscoe Howard, a former federal prosecutor who Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appointed in late August to ensure ZTE’s compliance with the terms of the sanction reprieve.