It’s no secret that the US considers Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer, as a national security threat. This is why Huawei’s products have been placed on the entity list by the US Commerce Department since 2019. As a result, the Chinese manufacturer is unable to access the US’ supply chain, including Google.
Ever since the ban has been put in place, Huawei has been trying its best to work around it. When the company was no longer allowed to use Google’s smartphone OS, Android, Huawei created its own OS called HarmonyOS. It was also able to put up Huawei Mobile Services and gain 4G-only versions of chips manufactured by Qualcomm Snapdragon. But with the rising prevalence of 5G devices on the market, Huawei needs to carefully plan what its next step is.
As revealed by Reuters, the current administration has stopped approving export licenses for US firms that were shipping to Huawei. This new ruling stops Huawei from receiving 4G-only Snapdragon chipsets by Qualcomm.
The decision was protested by Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. According to Mao, the US is making use of an overly broad definition of national security to suppress Chinese companies, Huawei included. In a press conference in Beijing, Mao said that the US’ action "goes against the principles of the market economy and rules of international trade and finance, hurts the confidence the international community has in the U.S. business environment and is blatant technological hegemony."
The US ban plans to include items under the 5G level. This includes 4G parts, AI, WiFi 6 and 7, and high-performance computing and cloud items.
For now, Huawei is waiting for a patent filing on components for an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine (EUV). This machine will etch extremely thin circuitry patterns on the silicon wafers. The reason why this machine is important is because it is a must-have for companies making chips. But since the Netherlands has banned the Dutch company that makes these machines from getting shipped to China, the latter has no choice but to build its own machine. Still, this could take years before the process can be played out.
Source: PhoneArena
