Trump Lifts Ban On Huawei Pulling Company Out Of US Supplier Exile
Huawei will once again be allowed to purchase parts and components from US suppliers, including Intel and Qualcomm, after President Donald Trump announced that he is lifting the ban on the Chinese telecom. The decision was made after he met with China's president over the weekend. It also calls into question if the ban was really ever about national security, or mainly a bargaining chip in negotiations with China over trade.
Tensions between the US and China have obviously been high, and it is not clear if Huawei got caught in the crossfire or, as domestic intelligence agencies have been saying for a long time, poses an actual security threat. Those warnings have largely prevented Huawei from having a bigger presence in the US—AT&T, for example, backed out of selling Huawe's phones at the last minute after a deal was made, and Best Buy banished the company's phones from its stores last year.
More recently, things took a dramatic turn for the worse for Huawei when it was added to a Federal Entity List that essentially barred it from doing business with US companies. It was reported that Huawei had a stockpile of parts that would allow it to build and sell phones for a couple of months, but looking longer term, a US ban could have potentially been crippling.
Now it is a moot point.
"US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei," President Trump said at a news conference. "We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it."
Huawei has repeatedly maintained that it does not spy on behalf of the Chinese government. The company has accused the US government of being threatened by its lead in 5G technology advancements, as opposed to having legitimate security concerns.
President Trump talked about Huawei when he met with China President Xi Jinping on Saturday.
"I said that’s OK, that we will keep selling that product, these are American companies that make these products. That’s very complex, by the way," Trump said. "I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product so that American companies will continue."
Parse from that what you will.
