Beijing government

China has banned the BBC World News television channel in a diplomatic fight with Britain after British regulators revoked the license of state-owned Chinese broadcaster CGTN.

The move late on Feb. 11 was largely symbolic, because BBC World already was limited to being shown on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners and some other businesses.

The US regulatory body has proposed rules to block the purchase by telecommunications companies of equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE and remove any of their equipment that is already available.

The Federal Communications Commission said the rules - which will be voted on November 19 - are part of an initiative to "protect the country's communications networks".

Twitter and Facebook have blocked accounts and pages used by Chinese authorities to spread disinformation about the Hong Kong protests, NOVA TV reported. Twitter has suspended over 900 accounts "from within the People's Republic of China (PRC)."

Huawei Technologies' creator and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, told Bloomberg TV that Beijing's countermeasures against Apple Inc. are unlikely and he will oppose a possible move from Beijing to the iPhone maker.

Answering some calls in China for reprisal measures against Apple, Ren Zhengfei said he would "protest" against any such move if it was taken by the Beijing government.