Frequency Forward Wants FCC Hearing on Musk's China Ties

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2025 – Watchdog group Frequency Forward is asking federal regulators to block SpaceX’s $17 billion purchase of spectrum from EchoStar, citing concerns that Elon Musk could be subject to influence by the Chinese government.

The group said in a Thursday filing with the Federal Communications Commission that the agency shouldn’t approve the SpaceX application without holding a hearing on the issue. 

The nonprofit’s petition cited Musk’s business activities in China, including a major Tesla factory, and recent ProPublica reporting that revealed some level of direct investment from Chinese entities in SpaceX.

“There is significant evidence that Musk, through his business dealing and sale of shares in his privately held companies, is vulnerable to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government,” the group wrote. “Furthermore, in selling shares to Chinese nationals it appears that he or his advisors have attempted to conceal from public scrutiny the nature of the transactions including the identity and nationality of the individuals investing in his companies.”

Musk controls SpaceX, a private company whose full ownership structure isn’t public. The company has told the FCC that only Musk holds an interest above 10 percent, the threshold at which license holders have to disclose an owner to the agency.

Frequency Forward was started this year and is affiliated with communications law firm Smithwick & Belendiuk. The group has sued the FCC for records related to the agency’s interaction with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration initiative, formerly led by Musk, seeking to slash federal agency spending and workforces.

Arthur Belendiuk, a partner at the law firm, is Frequency Forward’s counsel and signed the Thursday petition.

“This is not a speculative concern”, Belendiuk said in a statement. “Before the FCC grants SpaceX any additional licenses or frequencies, it must hold a hearing and ensure that the company’s ownership structure meets the public interest standard required by law.”

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FCC is expected to approve the deal. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called it a “potential gamechanger” last month, and the transaction was an effort by EchoStar to end Carr’s probes into EchoStar over its spectrum licenses. Carr was adamant the company wasn’t putting the airwaves to intense enough use.

Blair Levin, New Street Research’s policy advisor and former FCC chief of staff, said in an investor note after the ProPublica reporting that the Chinese investment in SpaceX was unlikely to hold up the transaction. He said the level of investment likely wasn’t illegal, and that even if there were some Chinese investment the company should have disclosed to the FCC, it wouldn’t doom the deal.

“If there is a challenge to SpaceX’s acquisition of the 2 GHz band, we believe that at most, this FCC will simply require a divestiture of the Chinese interest,” he wrote.

SpaceX is buying EchoStar’s 2 GigaHertz (GHz)/AWS-4 licenses, plus its PCS H-block holdings for $17 billion, and agreed to cover another $2 billion in EchoStar’s interest payments as part of the deal. SpaceX has asked the FCC for permission to launch a new 15,000-satellite constellation to support direct-to-device mobile service on the new spectrum.