U.S Delays Huawei Ban, Adds 46 More of its Subsidiaries to the Entity List
U.S. Commerce Secretary; Wilbur Ross has confirmed that U.S. will delay Huawei’s ban by another 90 days —which ends November 19th, 2019. He also confirmed that the Department of Commerce has added another 46 Huawei subsidiaries on the entity list.
Ross says Huawei has over 100+ of its subsidiaries on the entity list, therefore adding 46 more makes it harder for the Chinese company to conduct business with U.S. companies without pre-approval from the White House.
Huawei was placed on the entity list in May this year by the U.S. Department of Commerce following President Trump’s directive. His claims that the Chinese firm could be used for espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. Hence, a threat to U.S. national security.
However, Huawei denied all these allegations.
The directive went into effect May 16th, 2019 and all U.S. companies working with Huawei had to comply. This would see both parties lose out or make losses in their business.
Since it was an abrupt directive, Huawei’s ban was delayed for 90 days which expired on August 19th, 2019. But this hasn’t given enough time to some U.S. companies thus, extending the ban to another 90-days expiring November 19th, 2019.
Previous the first 90-day exemption didn’t include Huawei conducting business with U.S. until, Pres. Trump met with the Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan to allow the company business with U.S. companies till the 90-days expired.
Some of the companies that will be cutting ties with Huawei include; Google, Microsoft, Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, Micron Technology, Broadcom, Panasonic, to mention a few.
Cutting ties with Google mean that Huawei smartphones will no longer be in position to use the Android OS. However, Huawei would continue to have access to the Android open source license, known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), that is available for free to anyone who wishes to use it.
Huawei says it saw it’s reliance on Google as a ‘bad’ thing and resorted to develop its own mobile software, ‘Hongmeng’. But the recent launched HarmonyOS or Hongmeng (for China) is destined for smart TVs, smartwatches, and a bevy of Internet of Things but not smartphones.
This was first confirmed by Huawei’s Senior VP Ms. Catherine Chen, reported by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
After November 19th, what will happen to Huawei smartphones, well, this we wait to report.
