House China Hawks Call for IoT Maker Blacklisting

The leaders of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party kicked off the new year by writing to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, asking for a Chinese wireless company to be blacklisted.

Noting Quectel Wireless Solutions’ "problematic relationships" with a civil-military fusion arm of the Chinese government and with blacklisted firms like Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese military companies, the lawmakers ask if the firm may meet the legal requirements to be added to the Department of Defense’s list of Chinese Military Companies (1260H list) and the Department of Treasury’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List)]

Shenzhen-based Quectel manufactures "Internet of Things (IoT)" modules which connect equipment to central control and monitoring systems.   Markets include Transportation, Industrial Telematics, and Smart Metering of utilities.

Last August, Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Krishnamoorthi wrote FCC Commisisoner Jessica Rosenworcel expressing concern about the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to potentially weaponize internet modules made by Quectel and other PRC firms to infiltrate, track, or sabotage American devices.

Quectel Response

In September, Quectel published a response noting "the Committee's letter to the FCC had several misconceptions about how Quectel modules work."

"Quectel’s U.S. customers or their customers’ third-party suppliers/service providers handle device and data management exclusively. Firmware updates are managed and controlled by the device original equipment manufacturer (OEM), not Quectel."

Addressing the Committee's assertion that "these modules have the capacity both to brick the device and to access the data flowing from the device to the web server that runs each device," Quectel claims "Quectel itself does not possess any control; instead, this authority rests solely with the OEM – the entity responsible for developing the device. Remote management of the device is achievable solely through the OEM's device management platform."

"Quectel customers own the data, and Quectel has no access to any of the data collected. The ownership, control, storage, and modification of the data generated by IoT devices within the market firmly rest with the OEM device makers and its customers."

Qualcomm manufactures the chipsets and software platforms that are at the core of the Quectel modules. “Our Qualcomm partnership underlines the importance we place on working with well-trusted and secure partners from across the ecosystem to deliver high-quality solutions globally,” said Norbert Muhrer, President and CSO, Quectel Wireless Solutions

The Committee's letter to Secretaries Yellen and Austin made no reference to these security concerns, instead focussing on Quectel's role as a supplier to the Chinese wireless market.