It seems like the legal battle between Huawei and the U.S government is not going to end anytime soon. This time the U.S Exports regulator has seized Huawei’s equipment which the Chinese manufacturer claims doesn’t even fall in the export regulations. The equipment included a computer server and an ethernet switch along with some other telecommunications gear which it had sent to a testing laboratory in California and then back to China.
The equipment was seized in Alaska and currently, it is being considered whether a license is required to ship the equipment back to China or not. As of right now, “the equipment, to the best of HT USA’s knowledge, remains in bureaucratic limbo in an Alaskan warehouse” as per Huawei’s lawsuit. Huawei previously has been barred by various Silicon Valley companies in light of the U.S ban and this latest seizure of equipment shows that the U.S is no mood to tolerate Huawei’s presence in the region, despite various claims that banning Huawei is an economic and security risk.
Huawei has asked that the equipment be released immediately for shipment or be declared that it was illegally shipped. Probably in the latter case, Huawei would either be hoping to appeal the decision in court again or perhaps pay whatever the fine is for the alleged illegal shipment.
Huawei is currently working on its first-party OS called HongMeng which it hopes to release later this year. There is also a possibility that Huawei may release some phones powered by the Russian Sailfish OS but in either case, Huawei’s revenues from the smartphone division are going to take a massive hit.
What are your thoughts regarding the legal standoff between the Trump Administration and Huawei?
