Beijing urged US to end “unreasonable crackdown on Huawei and Chinese companies” after Washington announced new export controls to restrict Chinese giant’s access to technology semiconductors.
“The Chinese government will firmly defend the legitimate and legal rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The United States announced new measures on Friday to further control Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which the Trump administration sees as a threat to national security, in the service of Chinese authorities.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has reported a series of measures to curb Huawei’s ability to develop semiconductors abroad using U.S. technology. “This announcement blocks Huawei’s efforts to circumvent export controls,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Unreasonable repression”
Beijing’s response was swift. “We urge the US side to immediately end its unreasonable crackdown on Huawei and Chinese companies,” said the Chinese foreign ministry. He adds that the Trump administration’s initiatives are “destroying global manufacturing, supply and value chains.”
The new American measures are likely to further fuel tensions between Washington and Beijing, their relations being already damaged especially by the pandemic of Covid-19, which started in China, which Donald Trump reproached again Friday in Beijing . The day before he had threatened to sever all relations with the Asian giant and assured that he no longer wished to speak “for the moment” to his president.
The US Department of Commerce said on Friday that the controls “would narrowly and strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain American software and technologies.”
US officials have repeatedly accused the Chinese tech giant of stealing American trade secrets and supporting China’s spy efforts.
As a result, Huawei has increasingly relied on locally-made technology, but the latest rules will also prohibit foreign companies using U.S. technology from shipping semiconductors to Huawei without permission from the U.S.
The new restrictions will cut Huawei’s access to one of its major suppliers, Taiwanese chip maker TSMC, which also manufactures chips for Apple and other tech companies. Last year, the U.S. banned Huawei from using U.S.-made semiconductors in its products.
China has threatened to take retaliatory measures against Washington, in particular by restricting large American companies and putting them on a “list of unreliable entities”, according to an anonymous government source quoted in the Global Times tabloid on Friday. of the Communist Party.
US tech giants Apple, Cisco, Qualcomm and aircraft maker Boeing are among the companies that could be targeted, the newspaper said. (AFP / nxp)
Created: 16.05.2020, 13h57
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