Huawei has been tossed to and fro in the current Trump Ban over the US-China Trade War, but you’d be wrong to assume the corporation isn’t fighting back. The latest response from Huawei concerns the Chinese corporation suing the US over the seizure of its telecommunications gear in the lawsuit Huawei vs. US Department of Commerce, 19-cv-1828, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
Huawei’s US unit sent some telecommunications equipment over to a California lab for testing back in July 2017. Once the equipment was tested, it was in route to China when the US seized the equipment in Alaska to see if it needed an export license. Huawei says it provided all the necessary information it was asked to regarding the equipment, and that it was discovered Huawei didn’t need an export license according to the US Export Administration Regulations. That was twenty months ago, as the equipment has still not been returned to Huawei and allowed to be exported back to China.
This latest lawsuit from Huawei is not surprising, considering the current political situation between the US and China. Recently, Huawei has been blacklisted by the US Government, with American companies and allies being told not to do business with Huawei. That includes selling mobile components such as processor chips, antennas, modems, and so on. Huawei’s President has said that the company will lose $30 billion over two years as a result of the Trump Ban, so in such a situation, the Chinese OEM has decided to fight back with economic warfare of its own.
Huawei’s lawsuit over telecommunications gear is likely not a lawsuit over principles or morality; it is merely a lawsuit designed to frustrate the US Government into backing down from the Trump Ban and the current Trade War. After all, it has been twenty months; surely Huawei didn’t forget about the seizure of its telecommunications gear only to remember it at such a convenient time, right?
Apart from the economic warfare of its telecommunications seizure lawsuit, the Shenzhen-based corporation has demanded that Verizon Wireless pay $1 billion in 5G patent royalties due to Huawei’s 15% standards-essential 5G patent stake in the upcoming wireless network.
Huawei is the top smartphone maker in China, soaring above other rivals such as Xiaomi in the mobile space. To offset its financial loss, Huawei said that it will do what it can to gain 50% market share in China over the next year. Android OEM Xiaomi, to combat Huawei’s rise, has pledged an additional $725 million to its retail operations in order to see its profit rise in China. Huawei’s popularity in China and its ties to the Chinese Government have placed it at the center of this political war between two powerful countries.
The Trump Ban has seen Huawei blacklisted, its Android license revoked by Google, its smartphones taken off retail shelves in the US, and currently, its phones prevented from shipping to America. Additionally, companies like Qualcomm, that make processor chips, and even ARM, a British entity that relies on American patents to run its business, have abandoned the company — though Qualcomm, Intel, and even Google have spoken up for Huawei and pleaded with the government to back down from the current ban. Huawei invested $11 billion a year into the US for mobile components, these companies say, money that they will lose if the ban against Huawei continues.