Republican senators call for blacklisting of ex-Huawei unit in US

WASHINGTON • Republican senators led by Mr Marco Rubio have called on the administration of US President Joe Biden to blacklist Honor, a former unit of embattled Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, describing the firm as a threat to national security.

In a letter dated Thursday and seen by Reuters, Mr Rubio described Honor as essentially an "arm" of the Chinese government with newly unfettered access to the same prized US technology currently denied to Huawei. The letter adds to a growing chorus of China hawks in the US calling for the blacklisting.

By spinning off the Chinese telecom giant's budget smartphone brand last November, "Beijing has effectively dodged a critical American export control", Mr Rubio wrote in the letter also signed by Senators John Cornyn and Rick Scott.

"By failing to act in response, the Department of Commerce risks setting a dangerous precedent and communicating to adversaries that we lack the capacity or will power to punish blatant financial engineering by an authoritarian regime."

Huawei declined to comment beyond noting a prior statement that said it would not hold any shares or be involved in managing Honor following the spin-off. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the United States kept "smearing" Huawei without presenting solid evidence to support its accusations.

The Trump administration placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019, arguing that the company posed a national security threat, which Huawei denies.

Putting the company on the so-called entity list has meant its US suppliers have had to obtain special licences to sell key items like semiconductors to the firm.

Google was also barred from providing technical support to new Huawei phone models and access to Google Mobile Services, the bundle of developer services upon which most Android apps are based.

As sanctions against the company began to bite amid tighter controls, Huawei announced the Honor sale to a consortium of over 30 agents and dealers.

In August, a group of 14 Republican Congressmen led by Mr Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also called on the Commerce Department to blacklist Honor, alleging the company was spun off to evade US export controls and to give Huawei access to blocked semiconductor chips and software.

On Monday, Honor said on Twitter it had "succeeded in confirming cooperation with a number of supplier partners in the early stage" and that its Honor 50 smartphones would be equipped with Google Mobile Services.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 16, 2021, with the headline Republican senators call for blacklisting of ex-Huawei unit in US. Subscribe