If there’s one thing that President Trump did while in office that those on both sides of the aisle agreed with, it was banning Huawei. For decades, Huawei was seen as a security threat, but under President Bush and Obama, they were unable to find any proof of it. Including an investigation under President Obama that lasted over a year – and found nothing.
President Trump placed Huawei on the Entity List, which effectively means that they cannot work with any US companies. Without getting approval of the US government. Which means that Huawei can’t work with Google, and hence the reason why they’ve been going their own route with a new smartphone OS.
Biden’s pick for Commerce Secretary was asked during her nomination hearing yesterday, in front of the US Senate about Huawei. In which Gina Raimondo stated that she sees “no reason” to lift the Huawei ban.
More bad news for Huawei
Of course, things could change once Raimondo is placed in her cabinet position, but that is unlikely to change. Biden has been pretty quiet on his stance in regards to Huawei. And it’s one of the few things that he has not reversed since taking office over two weeks ago.
Huawei has continued to deny any ties to the Chinese government and its military. But that’s not enough to get the US government to lift its ban on the company. The ban has forced Huawei to build its own Android-based operating system, Harmony OS. As well as selling off its popular brand HONOR. Which was doing very well for Huawei, before being placed on the Entity List. Making it a major blow to Huawei.
Additionally, Huawei does networking equipment – which is what governments are really afraid of – and that’s taken a massive hit. Especially with the rollout of 5G currently happening worldwide.