Huawei becomes a hot keyword in the trade war between the United States and China now. On May 15, Huawei was banned by United States Administration under national security order.
Almost 5 months ago, Huawei had already been under great pressure from the U.S.. On Dec 6, 2018, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is arrested in Canada at the request of the US when she aims to fly to Mexico via Vancouver International Airport. At that moment, Huawei was significantly involved in the trade war. US president Donald Trump has said Huawei could be part of a trade deal between the US and China[1]. As the US-Chian trade war has escalated in recent with tariff hikes, the Trump administration added Huawei to entity list for banning the company from doing business with US companies without government approval, which usually operationally is impossible.
The situation of Huawei is deeply connected with trade war progress, the story is still developing. A timeline was summaried by cnet[2]. On May 24, TIME had a invterview with Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and CEO. He answered several questions including U.S. actions against Huawei, secuirty of Huawei’s product, Mrs Meng’s arrest and other topics.
He mentioned Huawei doesn’t have that much value to play a part in China-U.S. negotiations. Ren Zhengfei is a low-key person that he usually doesn’t accept interview even Chinese media. However, he accepts many media across the world including BBC[3], TIME, and bloomberg[4] in the recent week for his company. Mr. Ren earns respect for his openness and rationality.
Huawei is definitely impacted by the ban, although they prepare the backup solution several years ago. Huawei has over 30 U.S. companies are core suppliers from smartphones to telecom equipment. Mr. Ren believes they can survive U.S. blacklist.
[1] Trump says Huawei could be part of trade deal
[2] Huawei ban: Full timeline on how and why its phones are under fire
[3] Huawei founder: ‘America doesn’t represent the world’ – BBC News
[4] Billionaire Huawei Founder Defiant in Face of Existential Threat