US policies towards Huawei helps to cement relations between Russia and China
Deal comes as President XI Jinping makes a three-day visit to Moscow. Huawei has just recently been blacklisted by the US. The deal signals closer relationships between Russia and China helped by the US trade war with China. The Huawei ban could be a tactic in the trade war with China as suggested in this article but it no doubt will hurt many US corporations that have lucrative license agreements with Huawei. The deal with MTS unites two main companies within China and Russia
Huawei selling undersea cable business and cutting orders
Huawei has been trying to raise funds after lost revenue. It is planning to sell it undersea cable business. Huawei has also reduced smartphone orders with Foxconn as it has lost its access to Android apps and services. Huawei before shipped its Android phones with preloaded Android proprietary software.
Huawei fails to gain Japan 5G contract
In Japan SoftBank has chosen Nokia and Ericcson to provide their 5G equipment even though Huawei had provided their 4G network. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei in February boasted: “If the lights go out in the West, the East will still shine […] America doesn’t represent the world. America only represents a portion of the world.”
The Huawei ban is a lose lose tactic by the US
A recent BBC article notes how both sides are hurt by the Huawei ban: “It will hurt Huawei, which is also the world’s second largest smartphone maker, as it gets half of the chips it uses from US suppliers. Meanwhile, US companies could lose a key customer and the development of 5G could suffer given Huawei is such an important player in its development, analysts say. Washington’s moves against Huawei are viewed by some as part of a broader strategy to curb China’s growing importance in the world. China and the US have also been fighting a trade war over the past year, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of one another’s goods.”
Instead of a smooth globalisation process as many US and other global companies would like without political issues creating problems we may end up with feuding trading blocs and more attempts for large countries to become independent of global supply chains except with countries their political systems approve. This is already happening with the US. Will globalised US companies agree or will they push back and demand that the US change course? If US companies agree to drop Chinese markets and not use their technology it may become an also ran against China which is already developing its own phone operating system and with Huawei has an arguably superior 5G system.
