Status: 01/31/2023 10:38 a.m
The government of US President Biden has apparently stopped issuing export licenses to the Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Export restrictions have been in place for a long time, and now a complete ban could be imminent.
The sale of US technology to China has been restricted for years, and now there is a risk that the measures that are already in place will be tightened. According to media reports, the government in Washington has stopped issuing licenses to US companies for exports to the Chinese telecom supplier Huawei. This was reported by the “Financial Times” and several news agencies, citing people familiar with the process.
China is seriously concerned, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said today. “We are following the relevant developments closely.” The United States had just issued new restrictions against China in October, including export controls on semiconductor technology. This is intended to prevent China’s military from modernizing.
Warning against espionage and sabotage
Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications equipment and also entered the mobile phone business in 2003. Last November, the USA also banned smartphones from the network supplier. The United States has long accused Huawei of having close ties to Chinese authorities and warns of espionage and sabotage. The company denies the allegations.
Huawei has faced US export restrictions on 5G and other technologies for several years. However, officials at the US Department of Commerce had granted some American companies licenses to sell certain goods and technologies to the company. Qualcomm received permission to sell 4G smartphone chips to Huawei in 2020. Intel is also one of the companies that received export licenses for technology as long as it was not related to 5G.
“Black List” since 2019
Now the USA apparently also wants to ban the delivery of products to Huawei below the 5G level. It should be about the 4G mobile radio standard, Wifi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, high-performance computers and cloud articles.
US officials blacklisted Huawei back in 2019. Accordingly, most companies from the United States are prohibited from supplying goods and technology to the Chinese group unless they have received licenses.
Last December, Huawei said the company’s total revenue was $91.53 billion. It was only slightly below 2021, when US sanctions caused sales to fall by almost a third.