The Chinese giant argued that the FCC rejected its request for a hearing and that there is no evidence it poses an imminent security threat. "To date, this proceeding has spanned 18 months, during which time ChinaTelAmericas has continued to operate without incident, as it did for nearly two decades before that," the appeal states. The FCC terminated China Telecom Americas Corporation's authority to provide telecom services within the USA on October 26, citing the telco's potential for exploitation, influence and control by the Chinese government and other national security risks – including the ability to access or disrupt US communication, leading to espionage and other harmful activities. While China Telecom denied it could, would, or has done anything of the sort, it did mysteriously reroute European telco traffic through China in 2019 and was accused of doing similar things to US government communications in 2020.