Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

US to restrict visas for employees of Huawei, other Chinese tech firms

US to restrict visas for employees of Huawei, other Chinese tech firms

US State Department is targeting certain employees for their roles in enabling human rights abuses, says Mike Pompeo. The move puts further pressure on Huawei after Britain announced a plan to phase the company out of the UK’s 5G networks

The US government intends to place visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, putting further pressure on the company after Britain announced a plan to phase out usage of the company’s equipment from the UK’s 5G networks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his department was targeting employees of Huawei and possibly other Chinese technology companies for their role in enabling human rights abuses at home and abroad, hammering at a theme that has guided his hardline stance against Beijing.

“The UK joins the United States and now many other democracies becoming … nations free of untrusted 5G vendors,” Pompeo said on Wednesday.

“The United States has a Huawei announcement of our own today,” Pompeo told reporters in Washington. “The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.”

Pompeo made the remarks a day after President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order that will remove the city’s preferential trade status. The order followed Pompeo’s official determination in May that China has undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy to a degree that required a policy response.

The autonomy act requires “mandatory sanctions” against any foreign individual for “materially contributing” to the violation of China’s commitments to Hong Kong under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution. The Joint Declaration prescribed that the city would enjoy a “high degree of autonomy” until at least 2047.

Washington had already revoked Hong Kong’s preferential access to export licence exemptions, cutting the city off from sensitive technology shipments from the US in response to China’s controversial national security law for the city.

Pompeo did not specify which employees, or which type of employee, the restrictions are targeting, owing to “confidentiality that we place around the visa process”, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in an interview.

The abuses that Pompeo was referring to include internment camps in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), “but certainly not limited to that ... the company or the entity could be involved in human rights abuses outside of China, and these visa restrictions would still be applicable”.

Ortagus added that family members of the targeted employees would face the same restrictions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to ban Huawei from his country’s 5G networks follows escalating tension between London and Beijing, amid pressure from Washington to make the move.



Pompeo argued that US government pressure was not the primary reason for Johnson’s decision, attributing the move to conclusions reached by national security reviews carried out by the UK.

“They did this because their security teams came to conclude same conclusion that ours have, that you can't protect this information,” Pompeo said. “Information that transits across these untrusted networks that are of Chinese origin will almost certainly end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Canada is the only member of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence consortium – also made up of the United States, Australia and New Zealand – yet to block Huawei on security grounds from at least part of its high-speed 5G internet infrastructure.

While Canada has not moved against Huawei as decidedly as the other four have in terms of equipment bans, the country is playing a lead role in the detention of the telecoms giant’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is in the midst of hearings in Vancouver meant to decide whether Canadian authorities will hand her over to the US.

The US wants Meng, who is also the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, to face trial on fraud charges in New York. Meng was arrested by Canadian police at Vancouver’s international airport in 2018, acting on a US warrant, infuriating Beijing.




AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
EU Proposes Phasing Out Russian Oil and Gas by End of 2027 to End Energy Dependence
More Than 150,000 Followers for a Fictional Character: The New Influencers Are AI Creations
EU Prepares for War
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Druzhba Pipeline Incident Sparks Geopolitical Tensions
Cost of Opposition Leader Péter Magyar's Economic Plan Revealed
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Budapest Central European Fashion Week Kicks Off
U.S. Celebrates Labor Day
Hungarian National Team Captain Scores Epic Goal
×