The battle between Huawei and the U.S. shows no signs of abating. In fact, Huawei is making moves that will likely ratchet up the war even further.
Huawei’s CEO, Ren Zhengfei, told the Toronto Globe and Mail in a video interview that Huawei is moving its research facilities from the U.S. to Canada. Zhengfei acknowledged the company does not have much of a presence in the U.S., but does not want to give up on any one country due to a dispute.
Zhengfei said in the interview that the relocation to Canada would be a gradual one, but was necessary as a result of the sanctions.
“Because of the sanctions, we are not allowed to communicate with our employees in America. No phone calls. No e-mails. No contacts. Huawei’s development has been blocked in America, and therefore we are moving our business to Canada.”
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that the company has been encouraging suppliers to break the law to work around U.S. sanctions against Huawei.
Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters the U.S. government is frustrated by the limitations of blacklisting, since it does nothing to prevent overseas suppliers from selling to Huawei.
Ross said Huawei has “been openly advocating companies to move their production offshore to get around the fact that we put Huawei on the list. Anybody who does move the product out specifically to avoid the sanction… that’s a violation of U.S. law. So here you have Huawei encouraging American suppliers to violate the law.”
It’s safe to say the U.S. will likely be looking at additional options to punish Huawei.
