Beijing slams US chip export licence withdrawals
The Commerce Ministry on Wednesday said it firmly opposes the US withdrawing export licences to telecommunications equipment maker Huawei, as it also vowed to take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interest of Chinese firms. The remarks came after the US Commerce Department on Tuesday confirmed that it has revoked some export licences related to Huawei. Earlier, a Reuters report, citing sources, noted that the US government has withdrawn special licences that allows chip suppliers Qualcomm and Intel to sell order-generation semiconductors to Huawei for use in its laptops and handsets. Beijing called the move by Washington “a typical practice of economic coercion” and a “violation to its commitment to not decouple from China”. “The US has generalised the concept of national security, politicised economic and trade issues, abused export control measures, and repeatedly imposed unreasonable sanctions and repression on specific Chinese firms. China is firmly opposed to this,” a Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in response to media inquiry on the reported cancellation. “It not only violates World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, but also severely harms the interests of US companies. What the US has done has significantly violated its commitment,” the spokesperson added, citing that these actions are also in stark contrast to the US claim of “precisely defining national security”. Huawei did not immediately comment on the decision by the US Commerce Department. The cancellations came after the release last month of Huawei’s first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro, powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra9 processor. The company was placed on a US trade restriction list in 2019 amid spying concerns.