Foreign gadget bans: all the news about the FCC’s clampdown on Chinese tech

A gavel prior to an open commission meeting at the FCC. | Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images What do drones , routers , and Roombas have in common? The US government wants to keep Chinese ones from entering the country.

They’re the first consumer gadgets that are facing de facto import bans because of the US government’s xenophobic stance — and they might not be the last. Originally, the US government was just worried about US networks.

It’s been distrustful of Chinese telecom equipment providers Huawei and ZTE for well over a decade , eventually requiring telecom providers to “rip and replace” their gear .

(Many telecoms have still failed to do so .) It established an “Entity List” for companies whose gear should be banned from import, marketing, and sale.

But under the second Trump administration, that list has been weaponized against entire home consumer gadget categories too — starting in December 2025 when Trump and Brendan Carr’s FCC banned all future foreign drones unless their companies obtained a waiver.

Next was a ban on all future foreign routers, all future foreign robots and power inverters , and within the robot ban, all future foreign robovacs. In each case,

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  Foreign gadget bans: all the news about the FCC’s clampdown on Chinese tech