US restricts visas for folks working at Huawei and other Chinese tech makers – seemingly over China's human-rights abuses
(2020/07/16)
- Reference: 1594859738
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/16/us_visa_china/
- Source link:
The US government announced on Wednesday it will "restrict" the US visas of foreigners working for Huawei and certain other Chinese technology companies.
And by restrict, it means it may not let some of them in at the border, it appears.
“Today, the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally,” Secretary of State Mikel Pompeo, [1]said .
“Under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien is inadmissible to the United States if the Secretary of State has reason to believe the alien’s entry 'would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'"
The relationship between Washington DC and Beijing has worsened during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. It was already pretty rocky amid fears of Chinese equipment makers installing hidden backdoors for government spies to access, a war over trade tariffs, and concerns China's hardware makers are undercutting American suppliers while ripping off their designs.
Be as that may, Pompeo said this latest crackdown is due to the Middle Kingdom's [2]abhorrent treatment of Uyghurs. He accused Huawei of building infrastructure that helps the Chinese Community Party spy on, censor, abuse, and enslave millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a northwestern region of China bordering Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
“Companies impacted by today’s action include Huawei, an arm of the CCP’s surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China,” he said.
USA ends Hong Kong's special treatment, crimping flow of tech to territory [3]READ MORE
The visa restrictions are yet another blow to Huawei. In May, for instance, the US Department of Commerce blocked [4]overseas chip manufacturers , such as Taiwan's TSMC, from shipping components fabricated using US software or hardware to the Chinese tech giant.
Huawei along with its 70 subsidiaries were also placed on America's Bureau of Industry and Security’s [5]Entity List . And President Donald Trump signed an [6]executive order effectively banning US telcos from purchasing networking equipment from Huawei and ZTE until 2021. The order thus gives American manufacturers of telecoms gear a shot at rolling out their own 5G equipment amid reduced competition. Trump cited fears Huawei-powered networks can be exploited by the Chinese government, which poses a threat to national security.
Pompeo also [7]said the US government was “certainly looking” at banning the Chinese-owned video platform TikTok from the States. ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.state.gov/u-s-imposes-visa-restrictions-on-certain-employees-of-chinese-technology-companies-that-abuse-human-rights/
[2] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/15/us_ends_hong_kongs_special_status/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/16/huawei_chip_ban_latest/
[5] https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-list
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/14/trump_extends_huawei_ban_for/
[7] https://video.foxnews.com/v/6169770370001#sp=show-clips/primetime
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And by restrict, it means it may not let some of them in at the border, it appears.
“Today, the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally,” Secretary of State Mikel Pompeo, [1]said .
“Under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien is inadmissible to the United States if the Secretary of State has reason to believe the alien’s entry 'would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'"
The relationship between Washington DC and Beijing has worsened during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. It was already pretty rocky amid fears of Chinese equipment makers installing hidden backdoors for government spies to access, a war over trade tariffs, and concerns China's hardware makers are undercutting American suppliers while ripping off their designs.
Be as that may, Pompeo said this latest crackdown is due to the Middle Kingdom's [2]abhorrent treatment of Uyghurs. He accused Huawei of building infrastructure that helps the Chinese Community Party spy on, censor, abuse, and enslave millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a northwestern region of China bordering Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
“Companies impacted by today’s action include Huawei, an arm of the CCP’s surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China,” he said.
USA ends Hong Kong's special treatment, crimping flow of tech to territory [3]READ MORE
The visa restrictions are yet another blow to Huawei. In May, for instance, the US Department of Commerce blocked [4]overseas chip manufacturers , such as Taiwan's TSMC, from shipping components fabricated using US software or hardware to the Chinese tech giant.
Huawei along with its 70 subsidiaries were also placed on America's Bureau of Industry and Security’s [5]Entity List . And President Donald Trump signed an [6]executive order effectively banning US telcos from purchasing networking equipment from Huawei and ZTE until 2021. The order thus gives American manufacturers of telecoms gear a shot at rolling out their own 5G equipment amid reduced competition. Trump cited fears Huawei-powered networks can be exploited by the Chinese government, which poses a threat to national security.
Pompeo also [7]said the US government was “certainly looking” at banning the Chinese-owned video platform TikTok from the States. ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.state.gov/u-s-imposes-visa-restrictions-on-certain-employees-of-chinese-technology-companies-that-abuse-human-rights/
[2] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/15/us_ends_hong_kongs_special_status/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/16/huawei_chip_ban_latest/
[5] https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-list
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/14/trump_extends_huawei_ban_for/
[7] https://video.foxnews.com/v/6169770370001#sp=show-clips/primetime
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).
Anonymous Coward
OK, but I do get a distinct pot/kettle feeling when especially the US is using the Human Rights excuse after such fine humanitarian efforts as separating kids from their parents (and losing track of both parties) and police killing people of colour and getting away with it for years (basically unresolved, pervasive and, by the look of it, still actively supported overt racism.
Is what is happening in China wrong? Definitely. But the *US* imposing sanctions is hypocritical in the extreme. Then again, with a president who has now clocked over 20k lies told in office and killed up to 140k citizens because he is so inept I suspect he desperately needs the distraction.
The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).
It seems a bit hypocritical when Drumpf told Pres Poo Bear that building the camps was a good idea. I don't disagree with the action because china has been very aggressive and I am not happy with them poking their nose into so many countries around the world and then complaining bitterly when they are criticised by other countries openly saying that china has atrocious human rights. I think if people see what the chinese govt are really doing to the Uighurs then there might be a greater backlash against them.
The really strange thing is the Uighurs are Muslim and so far Saudi Arabia sided with china against having the Republic of China (Taiwan) admitted as an observer to a WHO conference. Next Iran is signing a deal with china to supply them with oil but have attached no conditions to treating the Uighurs as actual people. Forced sterilisation of Uighur women makes the chinese govt just as bad if not worse than the Nazi one. Uighur men are removed from the home and a chinese man is moved in to make sure the Uighur women and children do not practise their religion and the men also act as a proxy husband demanding the usual side benefits. I find this abhorrent and shows that the chinese govt does not deserve to be recognised as a civilised society.
To my knowledge no Muslim country has ever spoken out against the treatment of their fellow Muslims. Why is that and why is it left to the rest of the world to take up the Uighur's cause?