Published 22:34 IST, July 15th 2020
US to impose visa bans on some employees of Huawei over human rights abuse in China
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday announced that Washington will impose sanctions on some employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday announced that Washington will impose sanctions on employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei and other technology companies the US determines are assisting Chinese authorities in abusing human rights, including in Xinjiang. He added that the US will unveil new visa restrictions on tech companies like Huawei later in the day.
The move comes a day after the UK barred mobile providers from buying new Huawei 5G equipment after December 31, 2020, in a move to ban the tech giant's participation in developing the country's 5G network over security concerns.
In a news conference, Mike Pompeo said, "The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of the Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses."
The Secretary of State added that he will leave for a trip to the UK and Denmark. However, it is still not clear as to how many employees of Huawei will be affected with the visa ban.
The @StateDept will impose visa restrictions on individuals responsible for facilitating human rights abuses, including employees of Chinese technology companies involved in providing surveillance equipment to repressive regimes.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 15, 2020
UK bans Huawei from developing 5G in the country
UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden yesterday, told the House of Commons that London will bar mobile providers from buying Huawei 5G equipment after December of this year, a move that would cost the UK £2 billion and delay the 5G rollout by a year. UK's ban followed Washington's sanctions on Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation, calling them threats to national security.
Hours after the UK announced its ban, US President Donald Trump announced that he welcomed the UK's decision. He also said that he has convinced many countries not to use Huawei-produced equipment because of its security risk. "We confronted untrustworthy Chinese technology and telecom providers. We convinced many countries not to use Huawei because it's a big security risk. Just today, the UK announced that they are not going to be using it," Trump said.
China to take necessary measures to protect its interests
In a statement issued today, China said that it will take all necessary measures to protect its interest after Britain ordered mobile providers on July 14 to remove all Huawei equipment from its 5G network. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that the UK’s decision to purge Huawei equipment was driven by politics rather than national security.
Expressing disappointment over UK's decision, Huawei issued a statement in Beijing and said, "This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide."
"Instead of 'levelling up', the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK," it said. Huawei said its future in the UK has become "politicised". "This is about US trade policy and not security," the statement said.
22:04 IST, July 15th 2020