US tightens restrictions on Huawei’s access to chip technology
US restrictions against Huawei have been tightened further in a bid to prevent the tech giant from circumventing measures designed to cut its access to American technology.
The latest crackdown makes it even harder for the Chinese firm to buy chips produced by the US, even if they are made abroad.
Another 38 Huawei affiliates were also added to the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, a blacklist of firms linked to Huawei.
It comes amid heightened tensions between the US and China over security concerns.
Today, we dealt a direct blow to Huawei and the repressive Chinese Communist Party by further limiting Huawei’s ability to acquire U.S. technology and compromise the integrity of the world’s networks and Americans’ private information.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 17, 2020
The UK has also been caught in the crossfire of such restrictions, forcing it to ban Huawei equipment being used in the nation’s 5G network – a major U-turn on an earlier decision to allow it a limited stake instead.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Huawei has “continuously tried to evade” controls imposed in May.
“The Trump administration sees Huawei for what it is – an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state – and we have taken action accordingly,” he said.
“Today, our government enacted several measures to protect US national security, our citizens’ privacy, and the integrity of our 5G infrastructure from Beijing’s malign influence.”
Attention in the US has recently turned to another Chinese behemoth, TikTok, which President Donald Trump said would be banned unless it is bought from owner ByteDance.
Microsoft and Twitter are among the parties reported to have been in talks about a possible takeover of TikTok’s US operations.
Huawei has not responded to calls for comment.
