US revokes licences for sales of some chips to China’s Huawei

The US government says it has revoked some licenses that allowed US chipmakers to export certain products to Chinese tech giant Huawei.

The Commerce Department did not specify which licenses were canceled, but San Diego-based chip giant Qualcomm told BBC News the move affected one of its licenses.

Another US chipmaker, Intel, declined to comment, while Huawei did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Since 2019, the United States has restricted technology exports to Huawei, citing alleged ties to the Chinese military, but companies like Intel and Qualcomm have benefited from some exemptions.

“The Department of Commerce has revoked certain Huawei export licenses in our industry, including one of our licenses. We will continue to comply with all applicable export control regulations,” Qualcomm said.

Beijing condemned the measures taken by Washington against its companies.

The United States is “overextending the concept of national security and abusing export controls to suppress Chinese companies without justification,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Some US lawmakers had criticized President Joe Biden’s administration following last month’s launch of Huawei’s MateBook X Pro laptop.

“Make no mistake, the Biden administration would not have taken this action if Republicans in Congress did not hold them accountable,” Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said in a social media post.

Huawei was hit hard by US trade restrictions, but recently appeared to be making a comeback.

The Chinese company has seen a surge in popularity, especially after the launch of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone in August.

In 2019, under President Donald Trump, U.S. officials added Huawei to a so-called “entity list.”

That means U.S. companies must obtain a license from the government to export or transfer certain technologies, particularly because of concerns that they could be used by the Chinese military.

However, in the meantime, licenses were granted to some US companies, including Intel and Qualcomm, to provide Huawei with technology that was not related to 5G.

The United States has imposed restrictions on several Chinese technology companies in recent years as tensions between the world’s two largest economies intensified.

Earlier this month, President Biden signed a law that could ban video app TikTok in the country unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company. TikTok filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the legislation.