The Biden administration has suspended licensing of US technology exports to Huawei as it moves to impose a blanket ban on Chinese telecom equipment sales.
People familiar with the administration’s discussions said the Commerce Department has notified certain companies that it will not grant licenses to any group that wants to export U.S. technology to Huawei.
The move marks the latest in Washington’s crackdown on the Shenzhen-based tech company, which US security officials believe will help China engage in espionage. Huawei has denied any involvement in spying.
The Trump administration In 2019, it imposed severe restrictions on the export of US technology to Huawei by blacklisting the group on the so-called “legal entity list”. The move is part of Washington’s strategy to crack down on Chinese companies it believes pose a threat to US national security.
But the Commerce Department continues to grant export licenses to some companies, including Qualcomm and Intel, to provide Huawei with technology unrelated to its high-speed 5G telecom networks.
Over the past two years, President Joe Biden has taken a tougher stance against China, particularly in the high-tech sector. In October, it imposed severe restrictions on the supply of advanced semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment to Chinese groups.
Alan Estevez, the head of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, has been reviewing China-related policy to determine what steps the administration should take to make it harder for China to use American technology to make weapons.
A technology expert at CNAS, a think tank, said the latest move was a “really significant move”.
“The actions by the Commerce Department are partly because Huawei as a company is a different animal than it was four years ago when it focused on 5G,” said Razer, a former CIA official. Areas like submarine cables and cloud computing.
Washington’s move comes amid a flurry of Huawei activity. The company’s chairman, Eric Xu, said in December that 2023 would be the first year Huawei would return to “business as usual.” According to the company, revenue was flat at Rmb636.9bn ($94bn) in 2022, after a sharp decline in 2021.
The company has proven its presence in the enterprise and government business, particularly in China, and its growing cloud business. The fact that the U.S. still allowed some exports to Huawei helped prevent a complete collapse. Huawei is believed to support projects in China to build an import-free semiconductor supply chain, an effort Washington has begun targeting.
An industry insider said it was too early to assess the impact of the latest measures on Huawei. “Blanket suspension for an indefinite period of time is a tragedy for Huawei, but anything less than that, the result could be very different,” said a lawyer of export license applications.
An executive at a semiconductor design house that has worked with Huawei said that change will come when the export license expires. “It will be difficult to predict as there is no detailed information on which permits have been issued and when they will be announced,” he added.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is set to travel to China next week, the first time a Biden cabinet member has visited the country.
The United States is intensifying its efforts with allies to develop critical technologies such as semiconductors used by China for artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons modeling, and hypersonic weapons development.
Washington last week reached an agreement with Japan and the Netherlands to restrict companies in those countries from exporting certain chip-making equipment to China. The US imposed unilateral restrictions in October to stop American companies from exporting semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
Estevez pointed out last year that the US was looking at several other areas. “If I were a betting man, I’d put money on that,” he told the CNAS think-tank when asked about reports that the administration is considering restrictions on quantum and biotechnology.
A formal decision to implement a blanket export ban on chips with US technology to China has not yet been taken.
The Commerce Department declined to comment, but said the agency, along with other government departments, “continually reviews our policies and guidelines and engages regularly with external stakeholders.”
Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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