The new rule aims to stymie Huawei’s attempts to backfill its already sanctioned semiconductor chips with products from other companies.
The Trump administration on Monday further tightened the screws against Chinese telecom giant Huawei by revising and expanding its trade blacklist restrictions to include 38 of the company’s global affiliates and make it harder for the company to obtain semiconductor chips from U.S. companies.
The details: The Commerce Department’s move builds on its action in May to restrict the sale of U.S. software to Huawei that the Chinese company could use to produce microchips necessary to run its telecom systems and smartphones.
The new rule will now expand those restrictions to cover chips not designed by Huawei, but that the company could use instead of its own technology.
“What in May was aimed squarely at Huawei’s indigenous chip design, the rule today amends that and attempts to capture Huawei backfilling its indigenously designed chips with chips from other manufacturers,” a Commerce official told reporters on a Monday morning.
Monday’s announcement comes as President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on China, going after apps TikTok and WeChat as well as telecom companies like Huawei and ZTE. The Commerce Department first added Huawei to its trade blacklist in May 2019.❐
