United States of America further moved against Huawei on Monday, with the enactment of several measures to protect its national security, citizens’ privacy, and the integrity of “our 5G infrastructure from Beijing’s malign influence.”
Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, while announcing these measures said the Trump Administration “sees Huawei for what it is – an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) surveillance state – and we have taken action accordingly.”
The Department of State, he said, strongly supports the Commerce Department’s expansion today of its Foreign Direct Product Rule, which will prevent Huawei from circumventing U.S. law through alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf (OTS) chips produced with tools acquired from the United States.
This measure follows the more limited expansion of the Foreign Direct Product Rule in May, which Huawei has continuously tried to evade, Pompeo noted.
According to him, the Commerce Department also added 38 Huawei affiliates to its Entity List, which identifies foreign parties prohibited from receiving certain sensitive technologies and allowed Huawei’s Temporary General License (TGL) to expire.
“The United States has provided ample time for affected companies and persons – primarily Huawei customers – to identify and shift to other sources of equipment, software, and technology and wind-down their operations. Now that time is up.
“We will not tolerate efforts by the CCP to undermine the privacy of our citizens, our businesses’ intellectual property, or the integrity of next-generation networks worldwide.
“We are backing up our words with actions across the U.S. Government. The Department of Justice has indicted Huawei for stealing U.S. technology, conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, racketeering, and helping Iran to evade sanctions, amongst other charges.”
Pompeo said the Department of Commerce placed Huawei on the Entity List in 2019. The Department of State has engaged in vigorous diplomacy for more than a year to share what we know about Huawei and other untrustworthy vendors with allies and partners around the world.
