Trump’s Cold War with China’s Huawei Halts Intel’s Supply to the Telecom Giant

On Jan. 17, the Trump administration apprised several Huawei suppliers to stop selling to the Chinese company, including chipmaker Intel. The Trump administration revoked these suppliers’ licenses to sell to the Chinese company and planned to reject applications to supply the Chinese telecommunication firm, according to Reuters’ sources familiar with the matter.  

This may be President Donald Trump’s last move against Huawei in the final days of his administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday. Trump’s long-running cold war with China stressed that Huawei is a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. 

In May 2019, the U.S. put Huawei on an entity list posted by Commerce Department and restricted American suppliers from selling domestic goods and services to the company. Under the Trump administration, the country also made it harder for foreign firms to acquire licenses to sell semiconductors with American technology.

In response to the revocation, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday that the Commerce Department “intends to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license.” One of the sources familiar with the matter added that eight licenses were yanked from four companies.

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China also condemned Trump’s slam on Huawei earlier this month. China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Director-General Hua Chunying said “Huawei has left its footprint in more than 170 countries globally now and not a single case like America’s PRISM Surveillance Program, or spying on citizen’s privacy, occurred in the past 30 years. There is no evidence showing Huawei would deteriorate any foreign country’s national security.”

“Huawei is long ready to sign a ‘no backdoor’ agreement with foreign countries to allay security concerns and I don’t think any American firms can do the same,” said Hua.