China urges US to stop 'unreasonable suppression' of tech giant Huawei

After the United States imposed a new set of restrictions to China-based tech giant Huawei, Beijing has now urged Washington to stop the “unreasonable suppression” of the company along with other Chinese enterprises. The US Commerce Department said on May 15 that the country would now limit the ability for Huawei to use American technology to build the semi-conductors. According to reports, this move would also cut off Chinese tech giant’s undermining of the already existing sanctions by the US. 

However, Chinese foreign ministry has said on May 16 that the Asian superpower “will firmly uphold” the “legitimate” and “legal” rights and interests of Chinese firms. The statement further added that China urges the US to “immediately stop” the unreasonable suppression of Huawei and added that the actions by the US President Donald Trump’s administration “destroy global manufacturing, supply and value chains”. 

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‘Target Huawei’s acquisition’

The US Commerce Department had said that the additional measures would “target Huawei’s acquisition” in a narrow and strategic manner. The semiconductors are apparently the “direct product” of American technology. The US-China relations have grown more intense over the coronavirus outbreak as well. While US has repeatedly accused the Chinese technology giant of breaching secretive information on US trade and aiding China’s efforts of espionage, since the outbreak originated in Wuhan, US has also blamed the mainland for ‘mishandling’. 

Read - China Warns US Over Cutting Access To Tech For Huawei

The rival countries have indulged in a war of words and heightened the difficulties in trade. Since Huawei was abandoned by America, the tech giant has been majorly dependent on domestically made items. In fact, Huawei recently said that its sale had gone up by 19.1 per cent last year over 2018 despite the sanctions by the United States. Even though the restrictions had hindered the Huawei’s smartphone and network equipment businesses, the annual sales reportedly rose by $123 billion and profit rose 5.6% to $9 billion. 

Huawei still remains the world’s second-largest smartphone producer just behind Samsung and it reportedly also said that the handset sales in 2019 had risen by 15 per cent to 240 million. While the Chinese tech giant is still allowed to use Google’s Android operating system, but still face some challenges as the US company is unable to supply the rest of its products due to government-imposed restrictions.

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(With inputs from agencies)

Image Source: AP