(Washington) Washington withdrew certain export licenses which allowed American manufacturers to sell components to the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, a new episode in tensions between the United States and China, while Republican elected officials had pressed the president Joe Biden to act.
“We do not comment on any specific license, but we can confirm that we have revoked certain export licenses to Huawei,” a spokesperson for the US Department of Commerce told AFP on Wednesday.
The American semiconductor manufacturer, Qualcomm, told AFP that this concerned one of their licenses. “We will continue to comply with all applicable export control regulations,” assures the group in an email.
According to Financial Times, the license which authorized Intel to sell components to Huawei was also revoked. The American group did not respond to requests from AFP.
Huawei, which notably manufactures smartphones, tablets and connected watches, has for several years been at the center of an intense technological rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with the United States accusing the company – which strongly contests it – of being able to spy on benefit of the Chinese authorities.
In the midst of the electoral campaign in the United States, the subject is all the more sensitive, between trade and technological war, and concerns linked to internal security.
“Unreasonable repressive measures”
This announcement comes two weeks after two Republican congressmen, Senator Marco Rubio and House Representative Elise Stefanik, called on the Biden administration to revoke these licenses.
“We urge you to immediately revoke export licenses that allow American technology to aid our adversaries, in order to deprive Huawei of valuable American technology and slow the Chinese Communist Party’s advance toward the technological frontier,” they said. They requested in this letter sent to Joe Biden’s Minister of Commerce, Gina Raimondo.
“Huawei, a blacklisted company that was in bad shape only a few years ago, is making a comeback. This is because the Biden administration […] fails to protect American engineering,” the elected officials accused.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term in the White House against his tempestuous Republican predecessor Donald Trump, must assure voters that he is protecting American interests.
Beijing deplored in a press release this new decision by Washington targeting Huawei.
“The United States has overextended the concept of domestic security, politicized economic and trade issues, abused export control measures, and repeatedly adopted unreasonable sanctions and crackdowns against specific Chinese companies,” reacted a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in a press release.
This spokesperson warned that “China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”
Homeland Security
Despite attempts at rapprochement between the two countries, after the trade war which was waged under the Trump era, relations remain tense and the subjects of conflict numerous.
This decision, underlines the Department of Commerce, is part of a process of ongoing evaluation of “how our controls can best protect our internal security and our foreign policy interests, taking into account threats and a ever-changing technological landscape.
“As part of this process, as we have done in the past, we sometimes revoke export licenses,” the spokesperson said.
Since 2019, sanctions from Washington have cut Huawei off from global supply chains for American technologies and components.
American sanctions have forced the Chinese telecoms giant to refocus on sectors such as software, connected devices, corporate IT, but also electric cars with its Aito brand.
The United States is also seeking to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group’s products to monitor a country’s communications and data traffic.
In June, the European Commission found that Chinese telecom equipment suppliers, including Huawei, posed a security risk to the EU.