U.S. amends Entity List rule against Huawei to allow U.S. to participate in meetings to set 5G standards
The U.S. put Huawei on the Entity List last year, calling the company a threat to U.S. national security because of its perceived ties to the communist Chinese government. The plan was to make it very difficult for Huawei to obtain the software and components it needs to produce its handsets and networking equipment. Not being able to license Google’s Mobile Services, Huawei could not allow its phones to run apps like the Google Play Store, Search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Drive, and others. This didn’t matter in China where Google banned most of Google’s apps anyway, but it did have an impact on Huawei’s international units. Still, Huawei managed to increase its phone shipments last year by 17% to 240 million phones allowing it to surpass Apple and become the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer.
Secretary Ross says that the national security concerns about Huawei continue. He states that the spying that Huawei is accused of is a real issue and the U.S. is concerned about the security of its 5G networks. Despite the amendment to the Entity List rules against Huawei, the global leader in networking equipment is not allowed to participate in the construction of 5G networks in the states.
