China’s largest Chinese telecommunications company filed its request to the US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia this month.

“China Telecom has no likelihood of succeeding on its claims,” lawyers for the justice department and FCC wrote in a court filing posted today, saying the firm had not addressed the evidence “and instead takes issue with the Commission’s procedure”.

China Telecom Americas, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, was ordered on Oct 26 by the FCC to discontinue US services by early January because of national security concerns.

The FCC said China Telecom “is subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government and is highly likely to be forced to comply with Chinese government requests without sufficient legal procedures subject to independent judicial oversight”.

China Telecom, which has been authorised for the past 20 years to provide telecommunications services in the US, had more than 335 million subscribers worldwide in 2019.

It also provides services to Chinese government facilities in the US.

In March, the FCC began efforts to revoke the authorisation for China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet to provide US telecommunications services.

In May 2019, the FCC voted unanimously to deny state-owned Chinese telecom firm China Mobile Ltd the right to provide US services.

China Telecom said it must notify customers of the decision by Dec 4 and said without a temporary halt to the FCC action it “will be forced to cease significant operations, irreparably harming its business, reputation, and relationships”.