No, the US war against Huawei is not over, yes the Chinese giant is still on the US blacklist, but trade is trade. The US administration approved licenses for the sale of automotive chips to Huawei in the summer of 2021 for an estimated amount of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The professional reorientation of the moment
The Trump administration’s sanctions policy, pursued by the Biden administration, against Huawei, to the chagrin of its CEO, has produced its effects. The company recorded the largest drop in revenue in its history in the first half of 2021. It was forced to gradually get rid of its growth sector, smartphones. Its subsidiary Honor has taken its independence, its P and Mate ranges follow the same path.
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To survive Uncle Sam’s wrath, Huawei has shifted its focus to others, less likely to fall under a trade ban: finance, cloud, software, and therefore smart cars.
Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating president, announced in April 2021 a billion dollar investment in the sector. Pacts have already been made with three state-owned Chinese automakers.
The advantage of this sector for Huawei are its chips, to equip vehicle screens and sensors. They are not considered very sophisticated and therefore ideal for convincing the US administration to grant some commercial licenses.
The Chinese giant is increasingly interested in the cloud market in order to diversify its activities following the American sanctions which have weighed on its turnover.
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Republican opposition outraged
The news has thrilled more than one Republican senator in Washington. Tom Cotton, known for his anti-Huawei positions, told Reuters, « It is unacceptable that the Biden administration relaxes the lobbying campaign against Chinese spy companies like Huawei “. Same story on the side of Marco Rubio who took the opportunity to ridicule the Democratic president, ” another example of President Biden’s failure to protect America’s economic and national security ».
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce assured that the licensing policy is still aimed at ” restrict Huawei’s access to goods, software, or technology for activities that could harm U.S. national security and foreign policy interests “. Implications: Automotive semiconductors do not fit into these categories.
Huawei craves chips
The Biden administration has benefited from a rather unexpected trick, in the person of Cordell Hull, a senior official in the Commerce Department under Donald Trump and a player in US policy on exports to China. He estimated from Reuters, « In itself I don’t see a huge risk [pour la sécurité nationale] ».
Huawei, for its part, simply repeated its new direction without further comment, ” We are positioning ourselves as a new supplier of components for smart connected vehicles “. The Chinese company, true to its history, is already very ambitious to conquer this new market. The sources of Reuters report that it is in discussions with its suppliers for a new license application, they are generally valid for four years, this time for one to two billion dollars.
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