Huawei’s chief legal officer Song Liuping spoke out against the US’s trade offensive against the firm this week, arguing that it set a dangerous precedent not just for itself, but for other firms both domestic and foreign.
To recap, two weeks ago Huawei was placed on a blocked entities list which prevented US companies from trading with them. In the fallout, Huawei lost access to Google’s Android, Windows, ARM chips, WiFi and Bluetooth consortiums etc. Nothing much, just everything the firm needed to run a competitive computing and smart device business. Huawei argues that it’ll have a new mobile OS in time for Christmas, but don’t hold your breath. The firm’s products also found themselves subject to a high return rate and a fast depreciation in market value as customers and resellers rushed to offload their products onto each other like a bizarre game of consumeristic hot potato.
Song Liuping said “This decision threatens to harm our customers in over 170 countries, including more than three billion consumers who use Huawei products and services around the world.
By preventing American companies from doing business with Huawei, the government will directly harm more than 1,200 US companies. This will affect tens of thousands of American jobs.”
Huawei says it has been stockpiling inventory and diversifying its supply chain for years, in anticipation of being cut off from US suppliers.
But experts say being unable to source US parts and components for too long would be crippling. Huawei is a leader in 5G technology, and the trade blacklist could also make it difficult to continue rolling out the ultra-fast wireless tech globally.
