On one side, US president Donald Trump said that the US-based companies can continue selling components to Huawei as long as it doesn’t threaten the United States national security while on the other side, it continues fighting the Chinese giant on the legal fronts.
As per the latest reports, the United States has asked a federal court in Texas to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Chinese telecom giant Huawei against the US government after they banned its products in the country.
For those who are unaware, Huawei had filed the case in March this year claiming that a law preventing US federal agencies from buying its products violates the US constitution by singling out an individual or group for punishment without trial.
However, lawyers for the US Department of Justice challenged that claim in a filing this week, saying that the law wasn’t unconstitutional punishment, but rather the “logical next step” to protect the country and ensure that China isn’t given “a strategic foothold” in the United States networks.
They further added that the American lawmakers and officials had been warning against Huawei’s potential use for Chinese “cyber-activity” for over a decade. They also said that the company was using outdated arguments from the Civil War and Cold War eras.
The lawyers also argued that the portion of the law in question “does not sentence Huawei to death, imprison it, or confiscate its property.” Moreover, they added that it “plainly does not preclude Huawei from engaging in its chosen profession.”
Huawei is the world’s leading company when it comes to telecommunications equipment as well as it is also one of the leading brands when it comes to smartphone sales. However, the company has been under pressure ever since the Trump administration put Huawei in the “Entity List”, effectively banning the company from doing business with the US-based companies and technology. This was done through an executive order passed by Donal Trump, citing national security but without providing any proof for the same.
However, many analysts believe that the lawsuit is more of a symbolic gesture, given that Huawei has been barred from core US telecommunications networks for years. Currently, the concern for the Chinese company is being on the US trade blacklist, which could cost it $30 billion in lost sales over the next two years.
