While President Donald Trump is reprovingly mulling his administration’s response to China’s reportedly culpability in generating and then spreading the coronavirus, he’s already making moves.
On Friday, the president moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Chinese tech giant Huawei from chipmakers around the world, which could escalate tensions with Beijing beyond what they already are.
In an announcement, the Commerce Department said it will amend an export rule to “strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology.”
The company uses semiconductors to make smartphones. Huawei officials warned that Beijing’s ChiCom government would retaliate if the U.S. took any actions, but obviously Trump doesn’t scare easily.
In an interview with Fox Business Network, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that Huawei was able “to use U.S. technology with foreign producers.” He noted that the administration’s action will “try to correct that loophole and make sure that the American foundries are competing on an equal footing with the foreign ones.”
He added that the tech giant has “stepped-up efforts to undermine these national security-based restrictions.”
In a separate move, the Commerce Department extended a temporary license allowing U.S. companies to continue doing business with Huawei through August 13 to give them more time to find alternatives, but warned it would be the last extension.
Huawei has already been barred from doing business with the U.S. government over national security and espionage concerns.
Last year, reports noted that Huawei plotted to circumvent the U.S. ban and sell to U.S. customers covertly.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz reported in August that the plan was to disguise the phones as non-Huawei devices, but it was discovered last month by U.S. intelligence agencies who have since alerted the Trump administration:
According to the officials, the Shenzhen, China-based company planned to ship a large number of its smartphones to Mexico where the smartphones would be re-labeled and shipped into the United States.
As non-Huawei devices, there would be no prohibition on selling them in the United States.
The phones, however, could be identified as Huawei devices by examining their electronic components that can be traced to the Chinese telecom.
Concerns that Huawei poses a risk to the U.S. relates to intelligence indicating that China would use the company’s devices for espionage purposes. And the concerns aren’t new.
As far back as 2008 U.S. officials moved to block Huawei’s purchase of U.S. telecom 3Com for the same reason: National security concerns.
“More recently, Trump in May put sanctions on the company that are aimed at preventing any use of the company’s products in the U.S. while blocking American technology companies from selling computer chips to Huawei. He also issued an executive order banning U.S. telecoms from buying any equipment supplied by potential adversaries,” The National Sentinel reported.
“We’re not going to do business with Huawei,” President Trump said in August 2019 in announcing the ban.
“And I really made the decision,” he added. “It’s much simpler not to do any business with Huawei, so we’re not doing business with Huawei. That doesn’t mean we won’t agree to something if and when we make a trade deal, but we’re not going to be doing business with Huawei.”
