After months of uncertainty amid brewing tensions, the US has introduced new rules officially prohibiting the administration of government contracts to Huawei and other Chinese tech firms, a move that has further fuelled the fire between the countries’ seemingly endless trade war.
The rules issued by the US essentially bans government agencies from employing the services of Chinese companies like Huawei, Hikvision, ZTE, Dahua and Hytera.
Despite the renewed trade tensions, such rules come as no surprise as the Trump administration had been planning a crackdown on Chinese companies, including Huawei, whom they see as national security threats. According to analysts, the heated dispute could easily boil over into a total economic Gordian knot, with many Asian nations choosing to support Huawei while Western nations are steering towards the US’s decision.
Huawei is refusing to go down without a fight, stating that it would challenge the constitutionality of the ban in federal court. The company said that the law "will do nothing to ensure the protection of US telecom networks and systems and rather is (a) trade barrier based on country-of-origin, invoking punitive action without any evidence of wrongdoing."
