'To Ban or Not to Ban': US Agencies Reportedly Split on Whether to Blacklist Huawei's Spinoff

Chinese tech giant Huawei has been a long-time target of Washington over claims that it's a national security threat due to alleged collision with the Communist Party.

US federal agencies are split on whether to blacklist Huawei’s former smartphone brand Honor, effectively banning it from receiving US tech exports without a government license, The Washington Post reports.

In May 2019, Huawei and over 70 of its foreign subsidiaries were prohibited from doing business with US companies – unless special permission is issued – citing national security concerns. The company allegedly wanted to safeguard its aspiring Honor brand from similar restrictions and sold it to the state-owned Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology in November 2020.

However, WaPo has now reported that top officials at the Pentagon and the Commerce, State, and Energy Departments met last week to discuss if Honor should be added to the US government’s entity list.

According to the report, the Pentagon and Energy Department officials supported the move, while the Commerce and State Departments opposed adding Honor on the list of companies posing national security risk to the US.

Those who oppose blacklisting Honor believe that it doesn’t make sense to target the company, which is not represented on the US market. If banned, Honor will not be able to buy US technologies without permission and this would presumably hurt the US economy much more than the smartphone maker.

If federal agencies fail to agree on Honor’s future, it will be up to President Joe Biden to decide what happens next.

The crusade against the world’s leading 5G giant Huawei was launched in mid-2018 by the Donald Trump administration over allegations that it had ties with the Chinese government. The company was also later accused of exporting US technologies to Iran and its Chief Finance Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested on fraud charges in Canada over claims that the company violated US sanctions while selling equipment to Tehran.

Huawei has denied all the accusations against its operations and accused the US of pursing anti-competitive practices in an attempt to boost America's business sector and stall China’s economic rise.