Huawei CEO: Chip restrictions aim to maintain US tech hegemony

The Huawei chief accuses the United States of using security concerns as an excuse to announce measures against Huawei. According to him, the real reason is that US hegemony is under threat.

“The so-called cybersecurity reasons are just an excuse,” Huawei CEO Richard Yu claims, according to Bloomberg in a posting on China’s WeChat. According to him, the underlying reason is that the tech hegemony of the United States is under threat. According to Bloomberg, China also claims that the global supply is at risk due to the restrictions and calls on the US to ensure that companies can continue to trade normally with each other.

China and Huawei are thus taking a stand against the new measures announced by the US government on Friday. They stipulate that chipmakers using American technology must obtain permission from the White House to supply chips to companies on a blacklist, which includes Huawei and its subsidiary HiSilicon. The measure puts TSMC, among others, in a difficult position. That Taiwanese chipmaker produces, among other things, Huawei’s Kirin chips.

The United States is taking the measures because Huawei, along with ZTE, would endanger intellectual property protection, homeland security and consumer privacy. In particular, the use of Huawei equipment in 5G networks would pose a danger, due to the risk of backdoors. The influence of the Chinese state on Huawei is also mentioned as a risk.