The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Chinese tech giant Huawei of engaging in illegal surveillance on behalf of Beijing, effectively banning the company from working with American businesses. However, a recent ruling by the US Commerce Department has now permitted US companies to work with Huawei on developing 5G standards.
Swedish company Ericsson and Finnish company Nokia are “best positioned to compete” with Huawei, but the West has to “pick a horse or horses” to challenge the Chinese tech giant, US Attorney General William Barr told the host of the television programme ‘Sunday Morning Futures’, Maria Bartiromo.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr discusses a Trump administration executive order on the International Criminal Court during a joint news conference at the State Department in Washington, U.S., June 11, 2020.
According to Barr, Ericsson and Nokia have thus been “the strongest Western competitors” in the technological sector, effectively pushing American allies to “rally around” these actors, either through “private ownership” or “state involvement”.
The comment came following reports that the US government could be considering the option of acquiring a stake in one of the European companies. However, Barr said that it was not up to the Justice Department to decide on whether to invest in Swedish or Finish tech giants.
The attorney general still reiterated the earlier comments of the Trump administration that the Chinese company was “not competing fairly” on the international market by “stealing” American intellectual property and “cheating” in order to overtake the United States as the technological leader.
The Trump administration has long accused Huawei of conducting espionage on behalf of the Chinese government, allegations which have been expressly denied by the company management and Beijing. In May 2019, Huawei was restricted from working with US businesses and prohibited from obtaining American goods and technologies. However, following a recent ruling by the US Commerce Department, American firms have now been permitted to work with the Chinese tech company on the development of standards for the fifth-generation superfast networks.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
