China has sent out a warning to several tech companies promising “dire consequences” if they comply with the U.S. ban on Huawei.
According to The New York Times, a series of meetings were held by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, as well as members of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with a “broad range of companies that export goods to China.” While it’s unknown which specific companies were at the meetings, sources said that they “included a number of the world’s most important semiconductor firms, as well as other tech giants.”
Last month the Trump Administration added the Chinese telecom company to a blacklist, which national security officials have warned presents a threat to U.S. security. The ban means it won’t conduct trade with the company and will make it very difficult for Huawei to do business with companies in the U.S. It could also put pressure on allied countries not to use the company’s equipment.
As a result, Google is reportedly halting a business relationship with Huawei, which means the smartphone company won’t be able to access updates to the Android operating system, and it will also lose access to Google Play Store, YouTube and Gmail. Microsoft, ARM, and others have also stopped selling supplies to Huawei.
The sources in the NYT article claim that U.S. firms were warned against relocating their production lines to other countries and not doing business with specific companies. In addition, the firms were told that they should lobby against the Trump Administration’s efforts. Failing to comply with these orders would reportedly result in permanent consequences. As for non-U.S. companies, they were told that if they continued to supply Chinese firms, they wouldn’t face the consequences.
In May, Huawei Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said he doesn’t expect China to retaliate against Apple, despite the Chinese telecom company being blacklisted by the White House.
“That [Chinese retaliation against Apple] will not happen first of all, and second of all, if that happens, I’ll be the first to protest,” Ren said.
