Trump Says Huawei Still A Threat To US, Can Be Saved With A Larger Deal With China

Over the last week, the US has taken some extreme measures to box Huawei out of the entire technology sector.

It's cut off the company from every US partner licensing to it, even at the cost of an escalating trade war with China. Why? We're still not sure

Images courtesy: Reuters

According to the official explanation being bandied about, the US is forbidding local companies from doing business with Huawei for "security reasons". Supposedly, Huawei hardware puts the US at risk of espionage by China. "Foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services," the order reads and the government felt using Chinese-made hardware was only increasing that risk.

That makes sense given Huawei's role in network infrastructure for US telecom operators. It makes slightly less sense however to stop the likes of Corning from selling the Chinese company Gorilla Glass for instance. Even having Qualcomm provide Huawei with processors isn't really a problem, given that Huawei doesn't sell smartphones in the US.

Or maybe the real reason was that China has a habit of stealing intellectual property and trade secrets, in which case there are other Chinese tech brands that actually still do business in the US.

Anyway, the point is US President Trump has insisted for a while on implementing these increasingly drastic tariffs against China at large, and the other country has responded with tariffs of its own. In that light, it seems clear that the action against Huawei is simply another means of arm-twisting China. Which, then calling the issue one of national security is dishonest and inspires distrust in the US. Of course, that's just a theory right?

So yesterday, President Trump addressed the press at an unrelated event, where he was questioned by a reporter once again about the moves against Huawei. His response though wasn't exactly coherent.

"Huawei is something that's very dangerous. You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it's very dangerous. So it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form, some part of a trade deal."

Basically, Trump is still insisting that Huawei is a threat to the US' national security. In the same breath he also says that, if they manage to work out a trade deal with China, Huawei could be included in that.

You know, as though the threat of China spying somehow disappears when they acquiesce to the tariffs the US wants.

Which of course lends credence to the suspicion that it's not really a security threat at all, but just another way the country is attempting to bully another nation into submission.

Either way though, this might just be the first indication of the long, tiring road ahead for Huawei.