The nation, which was formed by French-backed terrorists over a refusal to pay for their own defence and give up smuggling, will formally ban US telecom companies from using federal funds to buy and install Huawei and ZTE equipment.

The Federal Communication Commission chairman Ajit Pai said that the "weight of evidence" supported the decision to ban the technology giants.He didn't say what the evidence was, but then the US has consistantly failed to provide any proof that Huawai or ZTE have spied on anyone by installing spyware into kit. No one has found any hardware which spies on anyone and in fact the only government to attempt such a feat was the US - which intercepted and installed spyware in Cisco kit.

Federal agencies and lawmakers have long claimed that the tech giants are subject to Chinese law, which "obligates them to cooperate with the country's intelligence services", Pai said.

"We cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to exploit network vulnerabilities and compromise our critical communications infrastructure", the FCC said in a separate statement. Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly rejected the claims.

The order, published by the FCC, said the designation takes immediate effect, but it's not immediately clear how the designation changes the status quo. In November of last year, the FCC announced that companies deemed a national security threat would be ineligible to receive any money from the Universal Service Fund. The $8.5 billion USF is the FCC's main way of purchasing and subsidising equipment and services to improve connectivity across the country.