The Biden administration has revoked eight licenses this year that allowed some companies to ship goods to Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei, according to documents first reported by Reuters, in an attempt to pressure the resurgent company.
Marko Djurica Reuters
The Biden administration has revoked eight licenses this year that allowed some companies to ship goods to Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei, according to documents first reported by Reuters, in an attempt to pressure the resurgent company.
The Commerce Department, which oversees US export policy, said in May it had revoked “certain” licenses, as Reuters reported, but did not specify the names or number of suppliers affected. License to Qualcomm and Intel was among those revoked, Reuters reported at the time.
“Since early 2024, (the Commerce Department) has revoked eight additional licenses involving Huawei,” the agency said in the document, which was prepared in response to questions from Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.
According to the document, the license agreement for Huawei includes “sports equipment and office furniture and low-tech components for consumer mass market goods, such as touchpads and touch screen sensors for tablets,” which are available in China from Chinese and foreign sources. The Department of Commerce said.
Huawei and Qualcomm did not respond to requests for comment. Intel declined to comment. A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is chaired by McCaul, said it had received the data on Tuesday and was reviewing it.
The details shed new light on the steps taken by the Biden administration to curb Huawei, as the company has begun to make a comeback despite Washington’s efforts to cripple it on national security grounds. Huawei has denied that it poses a security risk.
It also comes amid pressure from Republican China hardliners in Congress to crack down on the company, which shocked the industry last August with a new phone powered by an advanced chip produced by a Chinese chipmaker. SMIC despite US export restrictions on both companies.
The phone helped Huawei’s smartphone sales grow 64% year-over-year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to research firm Counterpoint. The smart car components business has also contributed to Huawei’s revival, with the company seeing its fastest revenue growth in four years in 2023.
Huawei was placed on the US trade ban list in 2019 due to fears that it could spy on Americans. Being added to the list means that the company’s suppliers will have to find special licenses that are difficult to obtain before shipping.
But Huawei’s suppliers have obtained billions of dollars in licenses to sell Huawei goods and technology, thanks to a policy introduced by the Trump administration that allows more goods to flow to the company than usual for companies listed as entities.
The summary also states that from 2018 to 2023, the agency approved licenses for $335 billion out of a total of $880 billion in applications seeking permission to sell to Chinese parties on the entity list. Of the agreement, $222 billion is expected to come in 2021, Biden’s first year in office, out of $560 billion in applications received that year, the agency added.