"China consistently opposes the overstretching of the concept of national security," China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing on October 20, a comment that accompanied Washington's move to force removal of a Chinese AI developer's products from U.S. civilian agency systems.
DHS order invokes the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act
On July 24, 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued an order directing U.S. federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products from their information technology systems and to cease new purchases of the company's products or services. The order, issued under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 (FASCSA), was filed for public inspection on October 19 and published in the Federal Register on October 20. The Federal Register notice includes a scanned, signed four‑page order posted to regulations.gov under docket DHS-2026-0628.
Scope: Hangzhou DeepSeek, R1 and V3 models, and unspecified "implementations"
The order names Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., the developer of the R1 and V3 models, and reaches the company's affiliates as defined by federal acquisition rules. It instructs agencies to remove DeepSeek products and any third-party products or services "developed using DeepSeek implementations." The notice does not define the phrase "DeepSeek implementations."
The company's privacy policy, cited in the notice, states that DeepSeek "collects, processes and stores users' personal data in the People's Republic of China." The Federal Register notice itself gives no reasons for the order.
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See what we buildWhat agencies and contractors must do
Under FASCSA, executive agencies "shall comply with exclusion and removal orders," though an agency may request an exception in writing from the official who issued the order; such a request must provide a compelling justification under the council's regulations. The law also requires the issuing official to notify the named company and the appropriate congressional committees and to review the order at least once a year.
The order reaches federal contractors as well. Contracts that include FAR clause 52.204-30 bar contractors from providing or using, in performing the contract, any product or service covered by an applicable FASCSA order unless a waiver has been granted by the issuing official. The clause requires contractors to:
- Search SAM.gov for the phrase "FASCSA order" at least once every three months;
- Make a reasonable inquiry into their supply chain when a new order could affect it;
- Report any covered product or service it has provided or used to the contracting officer within three business days of identifying it;
- Send further information on mitigation within 10 business days of that report;
- Include the clause in its subcontracts.
The notice also clarifies that an order issued after a solicitation applies to an existing contract only once the contracting officer adds it by amendment or modification. DHS directs questions about the order to CISA's FASCSA Order Implementation Team at fascsa.orders@cisa.dhs.gov.
Precedent and parallel restrictions
The Federal Acquisition Security Council framework allows three officials to issue exclusion and removal orders: the Secretary of Homeland Security for civilian agencies, the Secretary of Defense for the Defense Department and national security systems, and the Director of National Intelligence for the intelligence community. The notice underscores that the DeepSeek order covers only what civilian agencies buy and run and does not restrict companies or the public.
FASCSA was first used in 2025, when the Director of National Intelligence excluded Acronis, a Swiss cybersecurity and data protection company, from intelligence community procurement and ordered its products removed from intelligence community systems. Before the DeepSeek order, restrictions on DeepSeek in the United States had proceeded piecemeal: by February 2025, Congress, NASA, the Navy, the Pentagon and the state of Texas had barred DeepSeek from government devices. Bills introduced in the House and Senate that month to bar DeepSeek on government devices had not advanced past committee as of October 21, 2026.
How federal agencies, contractors, and Beijing are positioned
Federal agencies and procurement officers now have a clear compliance path but also administrative tasks: identify installed DeepSeek products and any third‑party services developed with "DeepSeek implementations," determine whether contracts include FAR clause 52.204-30, amend existing solicitations where required, and process any written exception requests to the issuing official. Agencies are subject to the order's annual review requirement.
Contractors face prompt reporting and mitigation timelines — a three‑business‑day notification if they identify a covered product or service and a 10‑business‑day follow‑up with mitigation details — and must perform recurring supply‑chain searches on SAM.gov every three months for "FASCSA order."
Beijing pushed back publicly. At the October 20 briefing cited by the Associated Press, Mao Ning said China "will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies." DeepSeek did not immediately respond to the AP's request for comment, the published notice states.
The order raises immediate compliance questions for agencies and contractors and leaves several procedural items set by FASCSA and federal acquisition rules — including the undefined phrase "DeepSeek implementations," the process for written exception requests, and the annual review — as the next formal steps in the record. The official order, posted under docket DHS-2026-0628, and DHS's point of contact for inquiries provide the procedural trail agencies must now follow.
