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Honor's future rests in the hands of bickering US regulators
The smartphone maker was spun off by Huawei late last year
Last year, Huawei sold off its Honor brand of smartphones to a consortium primarily backed by government-back companies to bypass sanctions placed against the company by the US government. Those restrictions have remained in place for Huawei, even as a new administration came into power at the start of this year. Despite the sale, security agencies in the US are considering expanding those sanctions to include Honor.
While Huawei remains shut out of the US smartphone industry, the company is seeking to bring in revenue through new methods. On Tuesday, Huawei announced its intention to begin charging companies like Samsung and Apple royalties for access and use of its 5G-related patents.
Trump administration issues one more middle finger to Huawei and its US suppliers
Reuters: $120 billion in US trade with Huawei held up
One of the President Donald Trump's choicest adversaries during his term has been China. He considers the country to be a trade scofflaw while politicians in intelligence circles have pegged it as a digital security threat. Huawei has been targeted to be the biggest casualty from multiple sanctions that have blocked it from acquiring American goods and services. Now, as the current administration makes way for another, we're learning of one of its final moves symbolizing a door slam.
FCC declares Huawei and ZTE as 'national security threats,' nothing changes
Carriers were already banned from using grant money to buy their equipment
In the past few years, the FCC has made overtures against Huawei and ZTE, characterizing them as national security threats. Well, now it's official: the commission has passed an order officially declaring the two Chinese tech giants as national security threats to the United States.
Beyond the political luggage generated in the midst of the protracted U.S.-China trade dispute, the American import ban that Huawei has to deal with is laden with doubt from tech critics who chide D.C. with inhibiting innovation in mobile phones. Lest we forget, though, that the Department of Justice is pursuing the Chinese tech behemoth for stealing trade secrets and fraud in relation to Iran sanctions breaches. Now, we're learning of leaked documents that tie Huawei to business conducted in another adversarial country: North Korea.
The decision by President Trump and the Department of Commerce to lift ZTE's ban on importing U.S. components drew plenty of criticism, but it seemed to mark the end of the ongoing ZTE drama. Unfortunately for the company, the ban now has a real chance of being reinstated.
ZTE was recently banned from acquiring components from US-based companies for seven years after the telecommunications firm violated the terms of a sanctions case. In a surprise move, President Trump announced his support for ZTE last week, tweeting that the sanctions resulted in "(t)oo many jobs in China lost." Despite this, a House committee has voted unanimously to reinforce those sanctions.
Huawei was expecting to launch the Mate 10 Pro on US carriers this year, but government pressure forced both AT&T and Verizon to drop the deal. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports the government is taking more direct action against the Chinese technology giant. The Department of Justice has opened an official investigation of Huawei that could have wide-ranging implications for its business.
The US and EU have put in effect sanctions against the Crimea area of Ukraine following Russia's annexation of the peninsula, and now various tech companies are complying. Google has already started to block AdSense and AdWords in the region, reports TechCrunch, and it plans to cut off Google Play services starting on February 1st.