US Restricts Visas for Employees of Huawei and Other Chinese Tech Companies

The US on Wednesday announced visa restrictions on employees of Chinese technology firms including Huawei, a day after the UK banned Huawei from its 5G network.

SEE ALSO: UK Bans Huawei From its 5G Network

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not specify which employees would be targeted or how many people would be affected.

He cited the Immigration and Nationality Act that says the US has the right to reject visitors if the Secretary of State believes their entry “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

“We have been especially vocal about the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses, which rank among the worst in the world,” Pompeo said.

The Secretary of State called 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.”

Pompeo accused certain Huawei employees of providing “material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses.”

The announcement also serves as a warning for other tech companies.

“Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers,” Pompeo said.