The United States revoked eight licences this year that allowed some firms in the country to ship goods to Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies.
The information was revealed in a document prepared by the US Commerce Department, which oversees US export policy and has, since 2022, sought to cut off China’s access to advanced chips and chipmaking equipment.
“Since the beginning of 2024, [the Commerce Department] has revoked eight additional licences involving Huawei,” the agency said in the document, prepared in response to an inquiry by Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.
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The Commerce Department’s disclosure sheds light on increasing efforts by Washington to restrict Huawei, as the previously-sanctioned firm attempts to regain its business.
In May, the agency revoked licences allowing companies including Intel and Qualcomm to ship chips used for laptops and handsets to Huawei.
The action came after Huawei unveiled its first artificial intelligence-powered laptop — the MateBook X Pro — in April. The laptop was revealed to be powered by an Intel-made AI chip.
The finding left Republican China hardliners in Congress fuming, with lawmakers asking why the Joe Biden Administration was continuing to let “US technology to be shipped to Huawei.”
Huawei also previously shocked industry last August with Mate 60 phones powered by a 7nm chip made by the country’s biggest foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).
The chip was the most advanced semiconductor produced by China.
The Mate 60 launch — in the midst of a trip to Beijing by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo — had raised concerns in the US as it has imposed export restrictions on both Huawei and SMIC.
The phone helped Huawei smartphone sales spike 64% year-on-year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to research firm Counterpoint. Its smart car component business has also contributed to Huawei’s resurgence, with the company notching its fastest revenue growth in four years in 2023.
Trump-era licences
Huawei was placed on a US trade restriction list in 2019 amid fears it could spy on Americans. Being added to the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain licence before shipping.
But suppliers have received licences worth billions of dollars to sell Huawei goods and technology, thanks to a policy introduced by the Trump administration. The policy allowed a much broader swathe of items to flow to the firm than is typical for an entity-listed company.
According to the document, set to be sent to McCaul on Tuesday, licence approvals for Huawei include “exercise equipment and office furniture and low-technology components for consumer mass-market items, such as touchpad and touchscreen sensors for tablets,” which are widely available in China from Chinese and foreign sources, Commerce said.
The summary also states that from 2018 to 2023, the agency approved $335 billion worth of licences out of a total $880 billion applications seeking permission to sell to Chinese parties on the entity list.
Of those approvals, $222 billion worth came in 2021, Biden’s first year in office, out of $560 billion in applications received that year, the agency added.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
Also read:
New Huawei Phone Shows US Sanctions May Be Working
US Scraps Chipmakers’ Export Licences to Sell to China’s Huawei
Huawei’s China-Made 7nm Chip ‘Years Behind US’, Raimondo Says
Huawei, SMIC Set to Defy US Sanctions With 5nm Chips: FT
US Chip Export Ban Seen as Big Opportunity for Huawei
Huawei, US-Sanctioned Firms Win as China Dumps Western Tech
US ‘Drawing Up List of Sanctioned Advanced Chinese Chip Fabs’
China Bans Government Computers From Using Intel, AMD Chips: FT
