US blacklist China's telecom giant Huawei over threat to national security

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration hit Chinese telecoms giant Huawei by adding the company into its so called “Entity List”. The Commerce Department said by adding Huawei Technologies and its 70 affiliates under this list means it will ban the company from acquiring components and technology from US firms without government approval.

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President Donald Trump has taken this decision to “prevent American technology from being used by foreign-owned entities in ways that potentially undermine US national security or foreign policy interests”, said US Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement on Wednesday. This move has come at a very delicate time when two of the world’s largest economies fight over the tariff battle, which the US officially calls as China’s unfair trade practices.

And on the same day Trump signed an executive order barring US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms deemed to pose a national security risk.

The order signed by the President did not specify any country or company but, US officials have previously labelled Huawei a “threat” and actively lobbied allies not to use Huawei network equipment in next-generation 5G networks.

In response to this Huawei on Wednesday said to ABC News that possible new U.S. restrictions on market access will have little impact on them and that these were "unreasonable restrictions" by the United States.

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"Restricting Huawei from doing business in the US will not make the US more secure or stronger; instead, this will only serve to limit the US to inferior yet more expensive alternatives," the telecom giant said in a statement.

"In addition, unreasonable restrictions will infringe upon Huawei's rights and raise other serious legal issues," the statement said. It said it was “ready and willing to engage with the US government and come up with effective measures to ensure product security".

US prosecutors had charged two Huawei units in Washington state in January as well. The charges were for conspiring to steal T-Mobile US Inc trade secrets.

Last week the FCC voted unanimously to deny China Mobile's bid to provide US telecommunications services. This news comes to the market striking an urgency in US as wireless carriers roll out 5G networks.