Bye bye, said Trump admin to Huawei: You give a cheque-ie to our techies, but there's no licence to ply
- Reference: 1610989204
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/18/huawei_licence/
- Source link:
[1]According to Reuters , a portion of the licences relate to unspecified semiconductor products from Intel and Kyocera, the Japanese memory manufacturer that was formerly owned by Toshiba.
[2]
This move is the latest assault on Huawei's supply chain from the US, which imposed a chokehold on the firm’s ability to acquire components and technologies for its mobile and telecoms infrastructure businesses.
In May 2019, the Trump Administration [3]placed Huawei on an entity list , citing national security grounds. Effectively, such a placement prohibits US companies from selling US-made or US-derived tech to those "entities" on the list without first obtaining a licence.
[4]
Licence approvals to do business with the Chinese firm since then have proven few and far between, and the few US companies lucky to be rubber-stamped tend to be making deals pertaining to older technologies, or those unlikely to be of use to Huawei's telecoms business.
Huawei cannot, for example, license Google Mobile Services (GMS), which is the [5]all-important secret sauce in Android , and contains proprietary apps like the Google Play Store and Google Maps. More substantially, it cannot [6]contract out any new semiconductor manufacturing work to its long-time supplier, TSMC.
This has devastated Huawei's mobile and telecoms businesses beyond the China. This year, Huawei is expected to sell a fraction of the phones it did in 2020. At the same time, Huawei has been frozen out of new 5G deployments in several key markets, most notably the UK, where Huawei’s supply chain woes were cited as a justification behind a wholesale ban.
In the short term, this latest hit is just the latest in several actions designed to diminish the influence of China’s tech sector. Earlier this month, China’s three largest carriers (China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom) were [7]placed on a financial ban list that resulted in them being de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange, and US investors forced to divest their positions. The same treatment is currently being [8]meted out to mobile giant Xiaomi , which according to analyst [9]Canalys is currently the third-largest mobile global manufacturer by shipments.
Separately, the US government has placed China’s largest semiconductor foundry, SMIC, [10]on an entity list . The intent behind this is ostensibly to prevent it from catching up with its nearest rivals, TSMC and Samsung.
Drone manufacturer DJI has also been hit with sanctions over allegations of complicity in the mistreatment of China’s Uighur minority ethnic group.
Trump will leave office on Wednesday. While few in China's tech scene will be sad to see him depart, it remains unclear whether the incoming Biden Administration will diverge from Trump's antagonistic stance.
As previous Huawei leadership have noted, the dislike of China [11]cuts across partisan lines in Washington . Any loosening of restrictions against Huawei or any other previously targeted firm would prove contentious, to say the least.
[12]
The Register has asked Huawei and Kyocera for comment. Intel declined to comment. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-huawei-tech-exclusive-idUSKBN29M0KD
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x250&tile=2&c=2YAYTAuvFKXnoTYx5r0y9qQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/15/president_trump_huawei_emergency_ban/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x250%7C300x252%7C300x600&tile=3&c=33YAYTAuvFKXnoTYx5r0y9qQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/26/huawei_google_embargo_exemption_plea/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/16/tsmc_huawei_chips/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/06/nyse_backtracks_on_china_telco_backtrack/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/15/xiaomi_us_sanctions/
[9] https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/canalys-worldwide-smartphone-market-q3-2020
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/21/smic_says_us_bans_bite/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/19/huawei_biden_election_win/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251&tile=4&c=44YAYTAuvFKXnoTYx5r0y9qQAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sabotage can come from either side
Just wait until China will sabotage the US supply-chain. China has been consistently taking grabs at the raw materials on a world-wide scale. The geopolitical might that China has been building should not be underestimated.
Soon they may cut the supply of raw materials that the US needs for its technologies and restrict it to non-US buyers only. Then, China will stipulate that none of its raw-materials may find way into US build technology. Lets see how long they will survive in the US?
Re: Sabotage can come from either side
I assume that will happen at some point. But not as retaliation. If the Chinese had that sort of whip hand over the US, they wouldn't hesitate to use it anyway.
Re: Sabotage can come from either side
>If the Chinese had that sort of whip hand over the US, they wouldn't hesitate to use it anyway.
I suspect the CCP's response isn't set by the need for a positive headline in this evening's news
Re: Sabotage can come from either side
No problem we just re-colonise Africa, plenty of minerals in places with no army
Re: Sabotage can come from either side
we just re-colonise Africa
Sorry, too late there. China has already moved into several African nations, providing new roads, schools, hospitals at no cost to the local government except a proviso that, when their new infrastructure has been improved to the point where they can exploit their mineral resources, they remember who built that infrastructure for them.
You know, the sort of thing we could have been doing a century ago if we'd been more interested in long term opportunity than we were in short term profit.
What happens when Huawei retaliates by revoking the licencing of all their 5G patents?
I think in that case the US will probably just point to the Chinese disregard / theft of intellectual property and shrug.
The grown ups have to tidy up the mess.
>What happens when Huawei retaliates by revoking the licencing of all their 5G patents?
We have Finnish 5G phones that only work in the USA/Eu
We have Indian 5g phones that only work in India
We have official Chinese phones that work in Africa, SE Asia
We have 'hacked' Chinese phones that work everywhere
Next, the internet
Won't worry the Americans. They are used to phones that only work in one city.
Hopefully
I suspect (hope) that the Chinese are working with the Grown-up Elect to find a way to deescalate the situation.
We should keep in mind that the sanctions imposed on Germany after the "War to End All Wars" led to the Nazi takeover, the development of science and technology which avoided the sanctions, and, ultimately, the need to number World Wars.
My compliments to the Headlines Dept!
My compliments to the Headlines Dept!
Getting close to "Super Cali go ballistic".....