China says to protect rights of its telecoms firms after U.S. move

BEIJING – China opposes a U.S. crackdown on its telecom companies, the commerce ministry said on Thursday, after a U.S. regulator stripped Pacific Networks and its ComNet unit of authorisation to provide U.S. telecoms services.

Ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a news conference that China would take the measures necessary to safeguard the legitimate rights of its firms after the Federal Communications Commission voted on Wednesday to revoke the authorisation.

(Reporting by Xu Jing, Albee Zhang, Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)