The United States has stepped up its new strategy to curb Huawei's development
1. Revoke the chip export license
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced that it has revoked the export licenses that allow Intel, Qualcomm and other companies to sell chips to Huawei. This decision will directly affect the supply of chips for Huawei's mobile phones and laptops.
Huawei has long been a key target of U.S. technology containment. As early as 2019, the United States added Huawei to a trade blacklist, restricting American companies from selling products to it. Since then, the United States has escalated sanctions on Huawei, aiming to cut off Huawei's access to key technologies, thereby curbing its development in emerging fields such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
The revocation of the chip export license is another major blow imposed by the United States on Huawei. According to the new regulations, both Intel's processors for Huawei laptops and Qualcomm's 5G chips for its mobile phones will be restricted. This will undoubtedly have a heavy impact on Huawei's smart device business.
Huawei said it is ready to respond and will continue to rely on independent and controllable technological development, including the use of its own HiSilicon chips. Huawei's flagship mobile phone, the Mate 60 Pro, launched last year, uses a domestic chip with a 7nm process, which has received an enthusiastic response in the domestic market. This also came as a surprise to the United States, since under the current sanctions, such a technology is considered impossible to achieve in China.
2. Expand the scope of sanctions
In addition to revoking chip export licenses, the U.S. government is also considering blacklisting Chinese semiconductor companies linked to Huawei, such as chipmakers Qingdao Sien and Sunrise Xu. The aim is to cut off Huawei's access to key technologies from the upstream.
The United States is also pressuring allies to further restrict the export of semiconductor technology to China. This includes asking Japan and the Netherlands to expand their export controls to China, not only for high-end products, but also for mid-to-high-end models and chemical materials needed for manufacturing.
The U.S. has also asked Germany and South Korea to reduce exports to China of the components needed to make chips. For South Korea, the specific request of the U.S. side is to restrict the flow of equipment and technology to China to make high-end logic chips and memory chips, including more advanced logic chips than 14 nanometers, and DRAM memory chips beyond 18 nanometers.
It can be seen that the United States is expanding the scope of sanctions against Huawei and China's semiconductor industry in all aspects, from upstream raw materials to downstream end products. The aim is to completely cut off Huawei's access to key technologies, thereby hindering China's development in strategic emerging areas such as chips.
3. Strengthen export controls
In order to increase the pressure on Huawei, the United States has continuously revised its export control rules to plug possible "loopholes".
The latest round of rule updates is in October 2023, when the United States targeted the "bypass" chip products launched by companies such as Nvidia to circumvent regulations. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo pointed directly at Nvidia, saying that if the company redesigns chips slightly below the limit for the Chinese market, the United States will impose controls on these chips in the future.
Raimondo also revealed that with the advancement of technology, the United States will continue to update the semiconductor export control rules, and may update them "at least annually" in the future to restrict China's access to advanced semiconductor technology.
This fully demonstrates the arbitrariness and uncertainty of the U.S. export control rules. Since the scope of "new technologies" and "advanced semiconductors" is not clearly defined, the United States can adjust its China policy at any time as needed, making it difficult for Chinese companies to grasp the direction and respond in a timely manner.
Fourth, China has responded strongly
In the face of repeated pressure from the United States, China has repeatedly stated that it firmly opposes the abuse of export control measures by the United States and will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce pointed out that the US restrictions on the export of purely civilian consumer chip products to China and the suspension of supply to specific Chinese companies are typical economic coercive practices, which not only violate WTO rules, but also seriously damage the interests of US companies.
China believes that what the US has done has seriously violated its commitments to "not seek decoupling from China" and "not hinder China's development", and it runs counter to its statement of "accurately defining national security". By generalizing the concept of national security and politicizing economic and trade issues, the US is artificially fragmenting the global semiconductor industry chain.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly called on the US to stop generalizing the concept of national security, politicizing economic, trade, scientific and technological issues, and abusing export control measures.
It can be seen that in the field of science and technology, the game between China and the United States has escalated into a strategic contest and ideological confrontation. Both sides are ramping up their deployments, and this technology war is likely to be a protracted one.
Fifth, the industrial chain diversification
In the face of extreme pressure from the United States, Huawei is stepping up its independent innovation efforts and establishing diversified cooperation with global suppliers to ensure the security of its supply chain.
On the one hand, Huawei adheres to an international and diversified supply strategy, supports diversified supply solutions at the design stage of new products, develops supply resources, and avoids the risk of exclusive supply or supply in a single region.
On the other hand, Huawei has increased its manufacturing capacity with equal emphasis on in-house and outsourcing, and has established long-term strategic partnerships with a number of electronic manufacturing service providers to form a backup of manufacturing and supply capabilities.
Huawei is also recruiting talent around the world, increasing investment in basic research, and promoting high-level independent innovation in science and technology. Ren Zhengfei once said that Huawei has been able to withstand the pressure of the United States in recent years, and the core is to rely on its 190,000 excellent employees around the world.
Industry experts believe that although the US sanctions have had a certain impact on Huawei, they have not dealt a fatal blow to it. Huawei will continue to maintain a certain market share and influence in the world.
Sixth, the global recruitment, strong base and fine technology
Ren Zhengfei has repeatedly emphasized that talent is Huawei's most valuable resource. In order to break through the encirclement, we must insist on attaching importance to basic research, recruiting talents from all over the world, and constantly improving our technical strength.
He said: "Everything that has been lost and cannot be lost is 'people', and people's quality, people's skills, people's confidence are very important. "It is with the wisdom and sweat of 190,000 outstanding employees that Huawei can withstand the suppression of the United States.
Ren Zhengfei also called for attaching importance to education, respecting teachers and valuing education, and concentrating on catching up with the leading advantages of developed countries in the field of science and technology. "In the future, China will compete with the United States, and there is no other way to improve education. The use of education as a commodity is another matter, but I think the most important thing is to pay attention to teachers, because when teachers are respected, everyone wants to be teachers. ＂
It can be seen that in this unprecedented technology war, Huawei is mobilizing global resources and integrating talent to achieve independence and control, and ensure that it occupies a favorable position in the future technology competition.