Displaying items by tag: Trade War

The US has been persistent in its global campaign against Huawei and some other Chinese tech giants such as WeChat and TikTok.

Emerging reports have been pointing towards renewed pressure on South Korea and a number of European operators to replace cloud infrastructure and facilities which were supplied by Chinese vendors.

It has been reported that the US has urged Korean authorities to subscribe to its Clean Network initiative, an initiative that was received with a great deal of criticism a few months ago, amidst a call between the two nations’ politicians.

It has been disclosed that Korea left it up to private companies to decide what to do with their equipment and which vendor to use.

For some time now, the US has been carrying out a long-running campaign against Huawei with regards to its 5G equipment. This has drastically affected the supply chain of operators across the world. The US has been relentless in trying to persuade its allies in Europe to also scrap Chinese vendors’ cloud infrastructure, including but not limited to Huawei.

US representatives recently met with Deutsche Telekom and Masmovil to raise security concerns in relation to data center and cloud infrastructure provided by Chinese vendors.

This comes as the US ramped up its efforts to influence tech policies across the rest of the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a memorandum of understanding in an effort to ensure that developing countries avoid working with “untrusted vendors” and encourage them to use “open, interoperable, reliable and secure” infrastructure.

However, despite the US’s efforts to undermine Huawei and other Chinese vendors, there is still no conclusive evidence that justifies their actions to target and harm their business abroad.

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant and daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, was detained in the Canadian city on a US warrant in late 2018. Her arrest put the 47-year-old at the center of the US and China's battle over Huawei's growing global reach. Hearings into whether she can be extradited to the United States will begin on January 20 in Vancouver, in a case with potential repercussions for ties between the US, China and Canada.

Cites FCC’s arbitrary findings and failure to offer due process protections

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith says the way the U.S. government is treating Huawei is un-American. As far as he knows, China’s leading maker of networking equipment and mobile phones should be allowed to buy U.S. technology, including software from his company.

US technology behemoth Apple could be one of the main targets for China as they look to retaliate and respond to the US campaign against Huawei by Washington.

Chinese telecommunications behemoth Huawei has blasted the United States for issuing an executive order that effectively bans them from operating in the US.

Following months of speculation it is now being reported in the United States that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order that will ban US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by Huawei.

Chinese telecommunication vendors ZTE and Huawei have both endured a difficult number of years in the US marketplace – and their issues have multiplied during the Trump administration.

ZTE were momentarily crippled and almost went out of business following a decision by the US Department of Commerce to ban US companies from using their equipment and products for 7 years. However, following an intervention from US President Donald Trump, the ban was overturned and the vendor was instead hit with a $1bn fine and has to adhere to a number of strict rules and regulations.

Huawei have also been subjected to sharp criticism and have been deemed by US intelligence as a serious threat to national security due to their close ties to the Chinese government. Observers believe that the aggression from the US towards the Chinese telecommunication vendors is part of Trump’s plan to use them as pawns in his trade war with China.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated when ZTE were initially banned, and it sparked an angry backlash from China. The rest of the world looked on anxiously as the two economic superpowers clashed head-on, it has since deescalated, but the high-profile arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has once again put diplomatic relations between the two countries under the microscope.

However, the situation in the US for both ZTE and Huawei is set to worsen following reports that US President Donald Trump is set to issue an executive order that would effectively ban operators in the country from using the Chinese manufacturer’s equipment and products.

Reuters has reported that the Trump administration has been mulling over the order for eight months, but it expected to formally enact it later this month.  It is said the order would not name Huawei or its compatriot ZTE by name but would give the US Department of Commerce scope to ban any supplier it suspects of being a threat to national security.

Chinese media outlets have launched a scathing attack on the United States for its role in the arrest and subsequent detainment of Huawei’s CFO in Vancouver earlier this week.