“We don’t want their equipment in the United States because they spy on us,” American president Trump said in an interview with Fox News this week.
Following the news that US licenses to trade with Huawei expired last week, the Chinese telecoms company is facing even more flack from the US which could affect its business. The Trump administration is further tightening restrictions by cutting off all access to US technology.
Another kind of lockdown
The US Commerce Department’s new rules, rolled out Monday, add an additional 38 Huawei affiliates in 21 countries to the Entity List, brings the total to 152 affiliates since Huawei was first added in May 2019. What this will do is further restrict Huawei from trading with any affiliate, essentially cutting off its supply of components and software (as is the case with Google).
These penalties were tightened in May when the Trump administration barred companies worldwide from dealing with Huawei if they use any US-based software or hardware in their production process. So, even running Windows on a PC would render their ability to trade with the Chinese company illegal.
It’s clear that this is becoming more of a global issue than initially expected. “With US-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington is pushing governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei, arguing it would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denies it spies for China,” Reuters reports.
Throughout this obvious trade war initiated by Donald Trump and his administration, Huawei has been enduring and evolving into one of the most robust corporates in the world, taking the number one spot with the most devices shipped in Q2 2020. Every time Trump cuts off a supply line, it changes the whole game.