Secretary of State Michael Pompeo expressed his department's support Monday for the Commerce Department's expanded restrictions on Huawei. File Photo by Greg Nash/UPI |
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Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The Commerce Department on Monday expanded restrictions on Huawei as the Trump administration alleged the company is a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, expanded its trade blacklist restrictions to include 38 of the Chinese technology's global affiliates. The goal is to prevent Huawei from obtaining semiconductor chips from U.S. companies to circumvent U.S. export controls.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised the Commerce Department's expansion of restrictions on the Chinese technology company's access to U.S. technology in a statement.
"Today, our government enacted several measures to protect U.S. national security, our citizens' privacy, and the integrity of our 5G infrastructure from Beijing's malign influence," Pompeo said in the statement. "The Department of State strongly supports the Commerce Department's expansion today of its Foreign Direct Product Rule, which will prevent Huawei from circumventing U.S. law through alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf (OTS) chips produced with tools acquired from the United States."
"The measure follows the more limited expansion of the Foreign Direct Rule in May, which Huawei has continuously tried to evade," Pompeo added.
In May, the Bureau of Industry and Security amended its longstanding foreign-produced direct product rule and the Entity List to block Huawei Technologies from obtaining foreign-made semiconductors built using U.S. technology.
Last year, the Bureau of Industry and Security added Huawei to a list of foreign entities required to obtain a license to import U.S. items, but the agency said the company has undermined that rule by importing non-U.S.-made items that are made using U.S. software and technology, such as semiconductors.
President Donald Trump has also recently pushed sweeping restrictions against Chinese parent companies, including TikTok and WeChat, to limit the Chinese Communist Party's access to U.S. data.
