US bans sale of technology from American companies to Huawei

JAKARTA – The Joe Biden administration has stopped granting licenses to US companies to export to Chinese telecommunications equipment company Huawei. This was reported by the Financial Times on Monday, January 30, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the US Department of Commerce has notified a number of companies that they will no longer grant licenses. This could potentially imply a total ban on the sale of American technology to Huawei.

The Commerce Department, Huawei and chip equipment maker Applied Materials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters about the report.

The United States in October 2022 placed new restrictions on China, including controls on advanced computing integrated circuits and certain semiconductor manufacturing items, in an effort to thwart China's military modernization.

In 2019, the Donald Trump administration also imposed a trade ban on Huawei, citing national security concerns, barring the company from using Alphabet Inc's Android for its new smartphones, among other key US-origin technology.

"US restrictions are now our new normal," Huawei executive Eric Xu said in December.