Earlier Huawei has responded to tension with the US by ordering employees to stop having technical meetings with American contacts. The Chinese multinational company also sent away certain American citizens working in research and development roles at its Shenzhen headquarters, according to the Financial Times. That move came two weeks ago after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that cut off Huawei from American suppliers, the report said.
Now, according to external reports, certain big tech firms have banned their employees professional and informal conversations with their counterparts from the Chinese-based telecom giant Huawei.
Intel and Qualcomm have given compliance instructions to their staffers. InterDigital has said it guided its engineers to ensure company compliance with US regulations. An official at LG Uplus said. Banning Huawei and fellow Chinese equipment maker ZTE from Europe’s roll-out of 5G telecom networks would cost EU mobile operators up to €55 billion (RM258 billion).
The evaluation feeds into a debate triggered by the US demands that companies in Europe and other allied nations shun Huawei as a 5G equipment supplier because of Washington’s fears it could compromise intelligence services. The US government in May prohibited American companies from selling Huawei US-made components it needs for its equipment. A 90-day reprieve was later granted to allow for the ban to be phased in.
The United States has accused the Chinese company of allegedly stealing certain financial information. The Trump administration has also claimed to suspect Huawei of working for the government of China – which is engaged in a major trade spat with Washington. Huawei has been repeatedly dismissing claims about its cooperation with the authorities and pleaded for not being guilty to all of the trade secret theft charges.