Huawei Accuses US of Bullying, Says Working With Google to Counter Ban

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei called itself the victim of US "bullying" on Tuesday and said it was working with Google to counter trade restrictions imposed by Washington last week, a senior Huawei executive said. The US government said it imposed the restrictions because of Huawei's involvement in activities contrary to national security or foreign policy interests.

On Monday, the Commerce Department granted Huawei a license to buy US goods until August 19 to maintain existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones, a move intended to give telecom operators that rely on Huawei time to make other arrangements.

Huawei is still prohibited from buying American-made hardware and software to make new products without further, hard-to-obtain licenses.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei on Tuesday told Chinese state media that the reprieve bore little meaning for the company as it had been making preparations for such a scenario.

Reuters reported on Sunday that Alphabet's Google suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, citing a source familiar with the matter.

"They (Google) have zero motivation to block us. We are working closely with Google to find out how Huawei can handle the situation and the impact from the US Department of Commerce decision," Abraham Liu, Huawei's representative to the EU institutions told Reuters.

Liu said Huawei did not blame Google for its decision and that it was too early to say what the consequences will be.

"Huawei is becoming the victim of the bullying by the US administration. This is not just an attack against Huawei. It is an attack on the liberal, rules-based order," Liu added.