Tension between Washington and Beijing rises with new US restrictions on tech Huawei | International

The escalation of tension between the United States and China goes up a new step, although on a well-known front, the technological pulse between the two powers. The Donald Trump Administration announced on Friday new restrictions on China’s Huawei, this time, limitations on the company’s ability to use technology and software Americans in the manufacture and design of their semiconductors abroad. In practice, it means blocking the world’s second-largest mobile phone maker from receiving shipments from global chipmakers. Even so, it renewed for another 90 days, until August 13, the licenses of companies that already trade with Huawei.

The Commerce Department justified the restrictions on semiconductors in the need to “protect national security” and the attempts by the Asian firm to “undermine export controls” in the United States, despite the truce in the rest, a game of balances that is explained by economic reasons and of political balance in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression as a consequence of the coronavirus.

The announcement comes at a turbulent time in relations between Washington and Beijing in the wake of the brutal pandemic for which the United States largely blames the management of the Chinese regime. On Thursday night, in an interview on the Fox television network, President Donald Trump had hinted at the possibility of “breaking all relations” with the Asian giant. “There are many things we could do,” he said, adding: “We could break every relationship.”

The United States accuses Huawei of spying through its devices in the service of the Chinese dictatorship and has subjected the company to different veto measures that have weighed down its accounts. The manufacturer achieved a net profit of 62.7 billion yuan (about 8.1 billion euros) in 2019, which is a good pinch and an increase of 5.6%, but it is far from the 25% that the results grew in 2018.

According to the Global Times newspaper, owned by the Communist Party of China and citing an anonymous source close to its government, Beijing is willing to respond with a series of measures such as the placement of US companies on their own blacklist of entities that harm Chinese interests, an initiative he had already threatened last year, when the Commerce Department announced the first restrictions against Huawei, its jewel in the technological crown.

The retaliation would also include the opening of investigations and the imposition of restrictions against technology giants such as Apple, Cisco or Qualcomm, as well as the suspension of purchases of aircraft manufactured by Boeing aeronautics, the newspaper added. “China will take forceful steps to protect its legitimate interests” if the United States follows through on the announced plans, the source said, according to the Chinese official newspaper.

The new friction comes when the two countries are already immersed in a bitter dispute over the origins of the covid-19 pandemic that has crystallized all the tension and mistrust that both have accumulated for years. The United States demands an investigation into the beginning of the crisis and Trump believes that the virus came out of a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, while China rejects it and assures that there is nothing clear. The dispute threatens to spread to the WHO World Assembly of Health Ministers next Monday and Tuesday, with Taiwan and research into the origins of the epidemic as catalysts.

Taiwan, which China considers an inalienable part of its territory, has asked to be allowed to participate as an observer in the two-day meeting. He argues the need to know first-hand what the pandemic will be about. The island maintained that status between 2009 and 2016, but pressure from Beijing withdrew it after the electoral victory of President Tsai Ing-wen, which the Xi Jinping government considers independentist, and the deterioration of ties between both sides of the strait. . This time, Taipei’s pressures have been backed by the United States and a number of allied countries, including Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and several European nations. Among his arguments, that the world would benefit from knowing in depth the Taiwanese model of response to the pandemic, which has left only 440 infected and seven dead on the island.

China has moved quickly and forcefully to avoid what would be a strong diplomatic setback, and to secure the support of other countries in the face of US pressure at the WHO. In recent days, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has multiplied its phone calls to other foreign ministries to discuss the response to the pandemic and the Assembly. The head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, has been in contact with counterparts from European countries. His deputy minister Zheng Zeguang has held teleconferences with Pacific and Caribbean countries.

According to the Xinhua news agency, at least Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjanto has expressed his country’s support for the “one-China principle” – the doctrine of Beijing that considers Taiwan one more province of its territory – and Hungary’s refusal to allow the island to participate in the assembly.

The WHO alleges that deciding the situation in Taiwan is not her responsibility, but that of the member countries. China claims that she represents the island, while Taipei maintains that only its democratically elected government can represent the 23 million that inhabit its territory.

Although Taiwan has not received an invitation to participate in the Assembly, its Minister of Health, Chen Shih-chung, has assured that the island will continue its efforts to participate.

In a statement issued in WHO headquarters in Geneva, the US diplomatic representation reiterated that knowing more about the Taiwanese management of the pandemic would benefit the rest of the world, but China “would prefer that this success not be shared, certainly to avoid uncomfortable comparisons “

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