One of President Donald Trump’s top officials has warned European allies hesitant about working with Elon Musk’s satellite Internet company that they needed to choose between US and Chinese technology.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr told the Financial Times that “allied western democracies” needed to “focus on the real long-term bogey: the rise of the Chinese Communist party.”
His comments come as European governments and some European companies consider whether Starlink—which is owned by Musk’s SpaceX and provides satellite broadband and limited mobile services—is a reliable partner after Washington threatened to switch off its services in Ukraine.
Carr, a longtime ally of Musk who Trump tapped to run the agency after his re-election as president, said it was “unfortunate” that politics appeared to be influencing long-term decisions.
“If you’re concerned about Starlink, just wait for the CCP’s version, then you’ll be really worried,” he said.
UK telecoms companies BT and Virgin Media 02 are among the companies trialling Starlink’s technology for mobile or broadband services—although neither has yet signed a full agreement with the provider.
Carr has previously argued in favor of Musk’s businesses in the US, claiming they had been targets of “regulatory harassment” ever since the billionaire took over Twitter in 2022.
He has also repeatedly suggested that Joe Biden’s administration discriminated against Starlink by denying it US government subsidies for rural broadband.
Carr told the FT that he believed Europe was “caught” between Washington and Beijing and warned of a “great divide” opening up between “CCP-aligned countries and others” in artificial intelligence and satellite technology.
