Some European officials have considered enlisting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the debate, arguing that decisions about what companies to use to build wireless networks are a matter of national sovereignty. While some European countries, like Poland, have embraced the United States’ point of view, Huawei is intertwined in European networks and many countries have made heavy use of its equipment. Britain has allowed the company to build equipment outside its core networks, but has an oversight board that closely examines Huawei’s equipment and software.

Australia was one of the first allies to move against Huawei, announcing a ban last year.

Some members of Congress have been skeptical of banning Chinese companies by executive order, including Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Mr. Burr has said discussions with telecom companies could prompt them to voluntarily block Huawei. Indeed, big carriers like Verizon and AT&T have said they will not use Huawei equipment. But administration officials have said that without an executive order, smaller companies that serve large parts of the rural United States might use Chinese equipment.

Government and industry officials have said the move to 5G networks will be more revolutionary than evolutionary. Unlike earlier generations of wireless networks, they will run more on software than hardware, allowing the possibility that companies that control the networks to divert information without being detected.

This capability comes as Washington and its allies have become more suspicious of Beijing, arguing that a series of new laws gives it unfettered access to data that crosses networks built and maintained by companies based in China.

Much of the attention has been on Huawei, because it makes some of the best and least expensive equipment that can go into a 5G network. It has also been the subject of Department of Justice indictments accusing it of stealing competitors’ trade secrets and is at the center of a spy scandal in Poland.

But administration officials said the executive order would ban a broad array of foreign equipment, not just Huawei. It would also prevent any Russian software from telecommunications networks. It would not ban European equipment makers like Ericsson or Nokia.