The Georgetown University think tank paper, published this week, says that "thousands" of public officials are still purchasing prohibited tech from "Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies" and that most state and local governments simply haven't bought into existing federal actions by making any changes to their procurement policies.Measures regulating buying foreign ICTS on the grounds of national security: - Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which prohibited federal agencies from using equipment and services from five Chinese tech companies (including Huawei and ZTE) or working with contractors that use covered equipment.Huawei and other Chinese companies on the list have always denied the existence of "hidden bugs" that would let attackers in, and the report concedes that one wouldn't really need backdoors installed at the government's behest when run-of-the-mill software bugs are an easier – and cheaper – way for most bad actors to get into a network, whether it's in prohibited Chinese companies' software or local software made by local people.The US also curbs the export of American tech deemed a national security risk to China, but nevertheless, 2,652 export licenses for restricted tech to China were granted by the Commerce Department in 2020, 94 percent of the total requested, according to an August report in the WSJ – with America shipping a wide array of semiconductor, aerospace, and AI/ML tech to China.In order to solve the problem of state spending on prohibited tech, the think tank recommends the Feds publish a "master list" of untrustworthy foreign ICTS covered by various federal rules and laws, as well as kick in with help for "rip and replace" programs for problematic equipment bought by state organizations, similar to the FCC's 2020 rip and replace program for private operators."