Biden turns the screws on Huawei

US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwell on June 13. His administation has shifted to encouraging countries to shun Huawei to offering financial incentives. Photo / Getty

Any Huawei hopes that the Biden administration would drop Trump-era sanctions have quickly faded.

The US government is ratcheting up pressure by now offering financial incentives for countries who shun 5G telecommunications gear made by the Chinese giant - which it sees as a surveillance threat (accusations Huawei and Beijing strongly deny).

US foreign-affairs agencies are developing workshops and a handbook that would help policymakers in places like Central and Eastern Europe, and in developing countries elsewhere, to build next-generation 5G cellular networks that don't use equipment from Huawei or a second Chinese company.

The move came in parallel to a new G7 initiative called "Build Back Better World" or "B3Q" - a programme the Biden administration has positioned as an alternative to China's Belt and Road initiative, which has aimed Chinese investment at infrastructure projects around the world.

Today's development follows President Biden issuing an executive order on June 3 barring Americans from investing in Chinese firms that are linked to the country's military or that sell surveillance technology used to repress dissent or religious minorities, both inside and outside China.

The new order expanded on an earlier, Trump-era blacklist and brings to 59 the total number of Chinese firms banned from US investment.

It came at a moment when China is both ramping up its ability to spy on its nearly 1.4 billion people- using a mix of facial-recognition cameras and software, phone-scanners and a range of other tools - and exporting that technology to nations around the world, according to a New York Times report.

The technology is often sold abroad as part of a package of communications equipment provided by companies like Huawei, or as part of China's Belt and Road initiative, which aims to expand the country's trade ties, the Times said, adding that China has used surveillance technology against Muslim minorities like the Uighurs and dissidents in Hong Kong and in the Chinese diaspora around the globe.

The move intensifies a commercial and ideological battle between Beijing and Washington, one that Biden has termed the struggle between "autocracy and democracy," the Times said.

Triple blow in NZ

Here, the GCSB in late 2018 blocked a proposal for Spark to use Huawei gear as part of its 5G mobile network upgrade, then in February 2020 hardened its line and rejected workarounds suggested by the Chinese company. Spark ultimately brought in Nokia Networks and Samsung to replace Huawei in its consortium of 5G upgrade partners (which also includes US company Cisco and Sweden's Ericsson).

In April this year, there was more bad news for the Chinese company as all-Huawei shop 2degrees named Ericsson as the primary technology partner for its 5G upgrade, beginning later this year - and also said it would rip out its Huawei 4G gear and replace it with Ericsson kit.

Meanwhile, at the consumer end of things IDC NZ tracking has revealed a collapse in sales of Huawei smartphones - which have lost appeal since US sanctions limited the Chinese company's access to Google's Android software and its app store.

And the Huawei NZ's public face - deputy chief executive Andrew Bowater - has recently decamped to the revitalised Orion Health.

Before his departure, Bowater announced a refocus for Huawei NZ, which is now concentrating its efforts on home solar roof installations and corporate video conferencing products.