Huawei is staying firmly in the news headline following the US Department of Commerce’s decision to add the Chinese technology vendor to its Entity List.
According to at least one report, chip manufacturer ARM has suspended it business with Huawei.
Huawei has released the following official statement: “At the moment, our supplier ARM is reviewing and evaluating the impact of the Commerce Department’s decision, and is actively communicating with the US government. We completely understand and support them.
“Recently, many of our partners have chosen to stick with us and weather this storm together.
“We are immensely grateful for this. Moving forward, Huawei will continue working with our partners to protect the interests of our customers and consumers around the globe, maintain order in the market, and ensure the healthy development of our industry.”
Meanwhile, speculation is rife around Huawei’s involvement with international standards organisations, with some reports saying its membership from many bodies has been cancelled or suspended.
“Recently, a handful of standards and industry organisations have put some aspects of collaboration with Huawei on hold in response to political pressure,” Huawei states. “We are disappointed by these decisions, but they will not have an effect on our daily operations. We will continue to provide our customers with top-quality products and services.”
The statement points out that Huawei is an active member of over 400 standards organisations, industry alliances, and open source communities, where it serves in more than 400 key positions. “We proactively contribute to these groups, and over the years we have submitted nearly 60 000 proposals. Currently, our work with the majority of standards organisations proceeds as usual. Moving forward, we will keep doing our part and work with standards and industry organisations to build a robust industry ecosystem for everyone.”
It continues: Standards represent the wisdom we have collectively distilled from all innovation in science and technology. Open and globally unified standards promote synergy along the value chain, which helps everyone provide their customers with products and services that are not only more advanced, but of much higher quality. This is what helped information society grow so strong in the first place.
“For the most part, all standards organisations, open source communities, and industry alliances hold true to the principles of transparency, openness, fairness, and non-discrimination. These principles lay the foundation for the healthy and sustainable development of the ICT industry.
“Huawei has not violated the articles of association for any of these organisations, and yet a small group of them have decided to suspend collaboration without any legal basis. Their actions go against the very principles that they purport to hold, and undermine their credibility as international organizations. Ultimately, decisions like this will result in fragmented standards, including fragmentation in information and communications standards, and will only serve to drive up costs and risks for everyone along the value chain.
“We believe that these actions do not represent the will of the industry. Despite setbacks like this, we are confident that the ICT industry will enjoy long-term, sustainable development.”