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

Share RSS Gift 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, the government claims it’s because those gadgets fundamentally pose an unacceptable threat to US national security. But in each case, the US has provided zero public evidence of a threat, has done nothing about existing drones and routers and robots that might pose such a threat, and hasn’t given us any reason to trust that its waivers have anything to do with security .

Besides, there are rarely any US companies to fill the gaps left by foreign ones. Consumer gadgets are largely made overseas, including practically all routers and practically all drones — just like how your Apple, Dell, and HP laptops are not made in the US.

In this StoryStream, we’re following the latest on the foreign gadget bans.

As PCMag notes, Taiwan’s MSI has gotten conditional approval to bring two specific routers into the United States, pending certification: the Radix GRBE94 and GRBE34, which’ll likely have friendlier names when they go on sale. Netgear and Asus inexplicably got blanket approvals for all new routers earlier this year, while TP-Link is fighting for its Wi-Fi 8 ones .

TP-Link, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer Wi-Fi routers, is in a precarious position in the US. The company just launched its first Wi-Fi 8 routers , but can’t bring them here because of President Donald Trump’s foreign router ban . Even though competitors Netgear and Asus make their routers in Asia, they’ve mysteriously obtained blanket waivers for all their new gear ; perhaps because of alleged ties to China , TP-Link hasn’t managed to get such a waiver yet.

But TP-Link is willing to do something those companies weren’t — to invest nearly $1 billion to make routers in the United States , creating “hundreds of high-paying research and development, manufacturing, and construction jobs for American workers over the next four years,” according to a letter TP-Link sent to the FCC.

In July, we told you how the FCC — and its subcontractor TÜV Rheinland — didn’t bother to do basic Google searches before legally approving banned DJI technology for import and sale. But a new game of whack-a-drone was more successful. Public records show TÜV Rheinland asked the FCC to block applications from another “DJI front company,” Jovistar. The FCC agreed, and Jovistar is now on notice.

The FCC would like you to know that its DJI ban is justified — because of the contents of sealed letters from the Pentagon that it has now forwarded to 16 congresspeople . Do they know something they’re not saying out loud? So far, the government hasn’t revealed a single shred of public evidence about a national security threat.

“TP-Link would begin assembling these Wi-Fi 8 devices in the United States by next year,” it claims in a letter to the FCC — if the FCC will exempt its routers from the foreign router ban . Notably, both Netgear and Asus got exemptions without promising to make routers in the US, even though the FCC’s paperwork requires companies to commit to US manufacturing to get that exemption.

The FCC has been cracking down on some Chinese test labs that improperly helped authorize gadgets for import into the US — now, it wants to get rid of Chinese labs altogether starting December 2028, only authorizing labs if they have a reciprocal economic relationship with the US. It’ll vote on October 29th; you can read the whole argument here .

The US has been finding ways to stem the tide of imported Chinese gadgets , including decertifying “bad labs” that are “apparently controlled by China.” It’s now pulled credentials from two more: SLG-CPC Test Laboratory , and Shenzhen STS Test Services , “for willfully providing incorrect or false equipment test results in connection with applications for equipment authorization.”

The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum and robo-mop , and it’s also now the first to escape the FCC’s Roomba ban .

Well, sort of — because the Matic wasn’t banned to begin with.

This spring, the United States banned all future foreign-made consumer routers — effectively all future routers — unless their makers could 1) convince the US government that they weren’t a national security threat, and 2) submit “a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States.”

As of September 9th, Asus now has an exemption from the ban, just in time to bring its first early Wi-Fi 8 routers here. But Asus has not publicly announced any plan to bring manufacturing to the US. It would not even confirm to The Verge whether it had submitted a US manufacturing plan.

Remember when it was cheap and easy for me to buy DJI’s banned camera ? The FCC is currently taking comments on a plan to ban online marketplaces from listing gadgets like that. Platforms would need to validate each device’s FCC status before they list it for sale. Etsy wants its “micro-entrepreneurs” to be exempt.

Dom says it’s quick and easy to snap a propeller backback onto the HoverAir Versa, and then… it can fly! Shame that HoverAir isn’t transparently telling backers that this camera has been banned in the US , and shame on the Trump administration for creating the dumb drone ban to begin with.

I am so sorry, fellow US gadget fans: the FCC’s drone ban appears to have struck again. The HoverAir Versa — a baby steadycam with snap-on propeller wings that transform it into a drone — has already stopped taking US orders just three days after its Indiegogo debut , and may be forced to abandon shipping plans in the US.

HoverAir is now telling backers it’s only shipping its camera to the US, not the piece that turns it into a drone, “due to a few remaining logistics updates with the Flight Kit.” But those “logistics” may actually be a euphemism for “we’ve been banned by the federal government.” The FCC’s database no longer has an entry for the HoverAir Versa at all, suggesting that its authorization grant has been pulled.

As a kid, I always imagined the “black market” would be like the movies: Shady vendors hawking illicit goods along dusty streets. But if you want a banned DJI Osmo Pocket 4 or Pocket 4 Pro camera in the US, you can just reach for your phone.

They’re on Temu, AliExpress, eBay, Mercari — even Amazon and Newegg — with fast, free shipping and no risk of tariffs or seizures. That’s because these cameras are already inside the United States, despite rules that ban them from entering the country.

HoverAir drones always have intriguing gimmicks. This one folds flat to fit in your pocket. This one can land on water. Another can charge inside its carrying case. But the brand’s latest trick might be its riskiest: it’s attempting to sneak a drone past the FCC.

In December 2025, the US government banned future foreign drones from reaching our shores, and HoverAir’s floating Aqua drone was one of the first casualties . But this time, brand owner Zero Zero Robotics might have found a loophole: its latest $750 Versa drone isn’t a drone, it claims, but rather a DJI Pocket-style mini steadycam with optional snap-on propellers that let it fly.

Empty offices. Bald-faced lies. No real consequences . Our investigation suggests it’s cheap and easy to dodge the US drone ban — but at least the FCC is revoking Odyssey Robot’s authorizations after we made the agency aware. The FCC’s order doesn’t begin to explore whether Odyssey might be DJI in disguise .

No other gadget knows as much about your home as a robot vacuum . They map your space, learn your routines, and many now carry a camera and microphone into every room in your house. As AI gives them a better understanding of what they see, the privacy and security risks these autonomous robots pose are only growing.

That’s why greater scrutiny makes sense, but the ban on foreign-made mobile robots issued by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week — implemented to address “unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons” — doesn’t actually judge products by how secure they are, just where they’re built . It effectively means no new robot vacuums from major companies can enter the US market unless they are built here. And spoiler alert: none are.

When the Trump administration announced yesterday that it was banning “advanced robotic devices” from entering the United States , the headlines were all about humanoids . But spying doesn’t require legs — and neither does the FCC’s robot ban.

Fuente: The Verge