Apparently, American companies will hardly be allowed to sell goods to the Chinese telecom supplier Huawei in the future. The previous restrictions, which primarily included products based on the modern 5G mobile communications standard, have been extended to older technologies, said a person familiar with the matter. Parts for building WiFi networks based on the “WiFi 6” and “WiFi 7” standards are also subject to the new restrictions, as are high-performance chips for artificial intelligence or cloud offerings.
The US Department of Commerce pointed out that the regulations are continuously checked. It did not comment on the specific case. Huawei also did not want to comment on this topic. The government in Beijing is “seriously concerned” about this development, said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry. “This move violates the principles of the market economy and the rules of international trade and finance, damages the international community’s confidence in the US business environment and represents blatant technological hegemony.”
Donald Trump, the predecessor of current US President Joe Biden, blacklisted Huawei in 2019. Since then, US companies have had to apply for permits to export certain products. In this context, the authorities granted Qualcomm, among other things, permission to supply chips for the 4G mobile communications standard. The volume of the 2021 approved deliveries to Huawei was reportedly $ 61 billion. On this basis, the sales of the Chinese group stabilized. Last year, it was reported at $91.53 billion, just below the level in 2021, when it had fallen by a third due to the previous restrictions.
In recent months, however, the US government has tightened export restrictions to prevent the Chinese army from modernizing and gaining strength. Among other things, Biden banned the export of machines for chip production to the People’s Republic. According to media reports, the US convinced the Netherlands and Japan to join this ban. Important suppliers of machines for semiconductor production are based in these two countries. In response to the current tightening of US measures, shares in Huawei suppliers fell by up to two percent.