Huawei is attempting to avoid US chip sanctions, trade body alleges

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is building a collection of secret semiconductor fabrication facilities across China, according to the US trade group Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

On Tuesday, Bloomberg published claims from the SIA that Huawei had received around $30 billion in funding from the Chinese government, in addition to acquiring two chip manufacturing plants and building three others in the region.

The trade association also alleged that Huawei is attempting to circumvent the restrictions placed on the US chip makers by the US government by constructing the facilities under the names of other companies.

The Semiconductor Industry Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden escalated the country’s trade war with China by signing an executive order that will further restrict US investment in sensitive technology industries in China. The new rules will impact three sectors — semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems.

“This program will seek to prevent foreign countries of concern from exploiting US investment in this narrow set of technologies that are critical to support their development of military, intelligence, surveillance, and cyber-enabled capabilities that risk US national security,” Biden wrote in a letter to Congress.

In 2019, Huawei was placed on a trade blacklist by government officials, restricting most US suppliers from shipping certain products and technology components to the company unless they were granted a special license. However, at the start of the year, the US government stopped approving any licenses for companies wanting to sell their goods to Huawei.