US Stops Granting Export Licenses for Huawei

Facts

• In line with US Pres. Biden's tightening restrictions on China, the US government has stopped approving export licenses for American firms to export most items to Chinese technology company Huawei.
• The company has faced US export restrictions for years — particularly regarding 5G technology — but officials in the US Dept. of Commerce have still granted occasional licenses for some American firms to sell select goods. For example, Qualcomm was permitted to sell 4G smartphone chips in 2020.
• US officials are reportedly also working on a new policy to restrict shipping 4G products, WiFi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing and cloud related-items to Huawei.
• The US in 2019 put Huawei on its “entity list,” which restricts exports to select organizations without a US government license. In 2020 it expanded the restrictions by seeking to cut Huawei off from chip suppliers using American-made technology.
• The news comes after the Netherlands and Japan this week also put forth legislation to join the US in restricting sales of some computer chip machinery to China.
• Huawei's overall revenue in December was $91.53B, down only slightly from 2021 when the US's sanctions caused its sales to fall by almost 33%.

Sources: BBC News, CNBC, Reuters, CNN, and Improve the News.

Narratives

• Pro-China narrative, as provided by Xinhua. US policies are an unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies. Since Huawei and other companies are not a national security threat to the US, this move violates international economic and trade rules. Policies like this create supply chain inefficiencies, disrupt globalization, and have hidden consequences for the world economy.
• Anti-China narrative, as provided by Foreign Policy. Huawei poses a huge threat not just to American commercial activities but also to national security since the company has strong ties to PRC government agencies. Chinese laws require businesses to work with Chinese intelligence and security agencies whenever they are requested, and there have been several allegations of Huawei engaging in espionage activities. Restricting exports to the company is necessary to protect American financial and security interests.