Some people in the United States are worried... Huawei is showing this trick
On September 2nd, the website of The Washington Post published an article titled "Concerns over China's Finding a Way to circumvent US technology restrictions over new mobile phones," written by Dou Yifan. The full text is excerpted as follows:
During the recent visit of US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raymond to China, Chinese companies quietly launched a new mobile phone.
This is not an ordinary gadget. Its launch has raised hidden concerns in Washington that US sanctions have failed to prevent China from making critical technological progress. This seems to also fulfill the warning from American chip manufacturers that sanctions will not stop China, but will only stimulate China to double its efforts and create alternatives to American technology.
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.'s new smartphone Mate 60 Pro represents a new high in China's technological capabilities. The United States implemented extremely strict export controls on China during the Trump administration, aimed at preventing China from achieving technological leaps, and these measures were continued during President Biden's presidency.
Paul Trello, the head of technology policy at the Washington based Albright Stone Bridge Consulting Group, said that this new phone "has dealt a significant blow to all of Huawei's former technology suppliers, mainly American companies.".
He said, "The main geopolitical significance is that this indicates that it is entirely possible to design without American technology and produce products that may not be as advanced as Western cutting-edge models but still have considerable performance."
The US sanctions aim to slow down China's progress in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and big data by cutting off its ability to purchase or manufacture advanced semiconductors, which are the brains of these systems.
Industry experts say it is still too early to assess the competitiveness of China's chip manufacturing industry. But it is obvious that China is still involved.
Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and author of "The Chip War," said, "This indicates that Chinese companies like Huawei still have sufficient innovation capabilities. I think this may also exacerbate the debate in Washington about whether to tighten restrictions."
Washington also faced similar challenges during the Cold War on how to hinder Soviet technological development. Harvard Business School economist Willy Sch said that Huawei's breakthrough is reminiscent of what has happened with the global positioning system technology now commonly known as GPS. The US Department of Defense has developed this technology and restricted its exports, fearing that it will fall into the hands of opponents. But Willy Sch said that export restrictions have prompted Moscow and other countries to develop their own versions.
"Therefore, from the fact that the United States truly dominates this technology, everyone comes to the United States to buy it, to the emergence of these different alternative solutions," he said, "you have to doubt whether the same thing is happening now."
As the most cutting-edge technology industry in China, Huawei has long been a target of Washington. Since 2012, Huawei has been the world's largest supplier of equipment needed for global Internet operations. Despite sanctions from the United States, Huawei still maintains this position. Huawei has submitted more patent applications than any other company in China, and many Chinese startups rely on Huawei's artificial intelligence algorithms to build their own applications for facial and speech recognition, pattern recognition, and other purposes.
Due to US sanctions, American companies such as Intel and Qualcomm have seen a significant decline in sales in China, the world's second largest economy, thereby compressing their research and development budgets. US executives are concerned that this may affect their long-term strength, as only a few of the strongest and fastest growing companies in this industry can survive.
