Trump Administration Clamps down on Huawei’s US Suppliers Including Intel

The Trump administration has clamped down on Huawei’s US suppliers including Intel with restrictions few days before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration.  The administration will also reject many applications to supply the Chinese telecom as well.

The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security Entity added Huawei to its list in May 2019, after an executive order from President Donald Trump banning the company from US communications networks.

In a statement to CNBC at the time, Huawei said: “Restricting Huawei from doing business in the US will not make the US more secure or stronger; instead, this will only serve to limit the US to inferior yet more expensive alternatives, leaving the US lagging behind in 5G deployment, and eventually harming the interests of US companies and consumers.”

Initially, the US offered a reprieve to companies, allowing them to work with Huawei through a temporary general license, but the Commerce Department accused the company of exploiting the rules to continue using American technology in its semiconductor design. It tightened those rules in August 2020 and said the temporary general license wouldn’t be extended further. 

For now, it is not known what the stand of the incoming administration of Biden will be on Huawei but the US’s actions are can be considered valid as it has to do with long standing national security concerns that Huawei has close ties with the Chinese government — a charge the company has repeatedly denied.