Cybersecurity Policy Report, Testing Labs With Chinese Ties Ask FCC to Restore Recognition, (Oct 17, 2025)

By Lynn Stanton

Five of the six equipment testing laboratories that the FCC notified in early September of its intention to withdraw recognition for the purposes of the agency’s equipment authorization program have asked the Commission to change its mind.

Parties were responding to notifications from the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology of plans to start proceedings aimed at withdrawing recognition based on initial investigations that found they were owned or controlled by a foreign adversary government (CPR, Sept. 9).

OET was acting pursuant to the process the Commission adopted in May in its ET docket 24-136 “bad labs” report and order that prohibits telecommunications certification bodies (TCBs), test labs, or laboratory accreditation bodies that are owned, controlled, or directed by an entity on the FCC’s “covered list” or other specified government lists of national security threats from participating in the FCC’s equipment authorization program.

The Chongqing Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAIC) declared in its response that it was “a 100% state-owned institution owned by the People's Republic of China, jointly established by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission, and the Nan’an District People's Government.”

CAIC said it opposed “the decision made by the Commission to revoke the recognitions of several Chinese state-owned laboratories, including CAIC. We believe that this move not only fails to promote international cooperation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, but in the long run, it will also hinder the facilitation of global trade and have a negative impact on the interests of relevant enterprises and consumers.”

It said that in its 15 years as a testing organization, it had “consistently operated in strict accordance with the ISO/IEC 17025 quality management system, and our quality practices have been accredited by major accreditation bodies in both Europe and the United States.”

It urged the FCC “to reconsider, at an appropriate time, its current policy restrictions on Chinese state-owned laboratories.”

China Academy of Information and Communications Technology’s Telecommunications Technology Labs (CTTL) said that “CTTL’s legal entity is the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and that CAICT is a public institution 100% owned by the People’s Republic of China.”

CTTL echoed CAIC’s arguments about international cooperation, global trade, and the interests of enterprises and consumers. It emphasized its participation in global standardization bodies and its operation “in strict accordance with the ISO/IEC 17025 quality management system.”

Like CAIC, it asked the FCC “to reconsider, at an appropriate time, its current policy restrictions on Chinese state-owned laboratories.”

CVC Testing Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. asked the FCC to “re-examine and restore its recognition of CVC Shenzhen as an accredited test laboratory.” It noted that it passed the “rigorous on-site audit and technical assessment” of the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) in 2020 and had completed subsequent monitoring assessments under A2LA requirements “every year.”

CVC Shenzhen said it was “affiliated with a state-owned, publicly listed holding company” but that its “operation is independent and there is no circumstance where the testing activities are controlled or directed by any external entities.” It added, “All FCC test data are collected and analyzed independently by our laboratory, and there is no data leakage or external directing.”

It asked the FCC to revoke the notice of intent to begin proceedings to withdraw recognition as an accredited test laboratory” and to restore that recognition. It committed to continuing “to strictly adhere to all relevant rules of FCC and international laboratory accreditation standards, [to] conduct testing with ‘independence, impartiality, compliance’ as the core, [to] ensure the authenticity and reliability of test results, and [to] maintain the seriousness and authority of FCC.”

CVC Testing Technology Co. Ltd. filed a substantially similar letter asking the FCC to revoke the notice of intent to begin proceedings to withdraw recognition as an accredited test laboratory and to restore that recognition.

TUV Rheinland/CCIC (Ningbo) Co. Ltd. asked the FCC to “abstain from removing withdrawal of recognition as an accredited test laboratory from TR/CCIC.”

“In our view, the requirements for withdrawal under Sect. 2951 (d)(1) and (e) of the FCC Rules are not satisfied as the company controlling the accredited laboratory is TÜV Rheinland (China) Ltd. (‘TR’) rather than China Certification & Inspection Group Co., Ltd. (‘CCIC’). TR is a Chinese entity indirectly controlled by TÜV Rheinland AG, a company organized under the laws of and domiciled in the Federal Republic of Germany. In this respect, the Company is not under the control or direction of a prohibited entity in the sense of Sect. 2902 of the FCC Rules,” TUV Rheinland/CCIC said.

TUV Rheinland has the majority share of shareholder votes and the majority share of seats on the TR/CCIC’s board of directors, according to the filing.

However, UL-CCIC Co. Ltd. (JV Entity) responded by telling the FCC “that the JV Entity withdraws as an FCC-recognized testing laboratory and has ceased all testing under the equipment authorization program (the ‘EAP Program’).” It noted that “UL-CCIC Company Limited is a joint venture that is 70% owned by UL LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of an American company, and 30% owned by the China Certification & Inspection Group Co., Ltd.”

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