Joe Biden has barely been sworn in as the new U.S. president, and he has already been able to revise many of Donald Trump’s wrong decisions by decree. But some of his predecessor’s decisions will be upheld in the new administration. One example is the sanctions against China. Large companies from the Far East, such as Huawei, suffer from this in particular.
Trade minister wants to maintain China policy
The future Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, also wants to maintain trade restrictions against Huawei and other Chinese companies. These ensure, among other things, that U.S. companies can only establish highly restricted economic ties with them. According to the news portal Bloomberg, this emerged from a request from Republican senators. Raimondo “understands that companies are on the Entity List and the Military End User List because they pose a risk to U.S. national security or international relations.” Further, it “currently has no reason to believe that the actors on these lists should not be on them.”
China not pleased
The trade minister nevertheless expressed openness to a discourse with the Far East companies concerned. But the decisive factor for sticking to the restriction lists is no longer just economic concerns, she said. Raimondo also wants to work more closely with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken. Blinken is primarily concerned about the fact that in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, large quantities of goods are produced using forced labor. From the U.S. government’s point of view, an import blockade is the only right way. Certainly, the Chinese hoped that with a Joe Biden at the head of the U.S. government, the relationship between the two great powers would also find relaxation. Accordingly, the Chinese leadership was anything but pleased. Thus, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that the country still strongly condemns the current blacklists.
Bad prognosis for Huawei
Not only the Chinese leadership, but first and foremost the companies themselves would certainly have been delighted to see an easing of the economic relationship. However, with the decision of sticking to the sanctions decided by Donald Trump, an easing of tensions in the near future seems more than unlikely. In the wake of this, Huawei will have to continue to worry about its foreign sales market. If you look at Huawei’s sales declines in Europe, it becomes clear that the problems do not only affect the US market. However, it is questionable whether this will endanger Huawei’s existence as one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the long run.
