The following are excerpts from a Reuters report by Diane Bartz and Karen Freifeld, dated January 17, 2019, under the headline "U.S. lawmakers introduce bipartisan bills targeting China's Huawei and ZTE". (Begin excerpts) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced bills on Wednesday that would ban the sale of U.S. chips or other components to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], ZTE Corp (000063.SZ) or other Chinese telecommunications companies that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws. The proposed law was introduced shortly before the Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors were investigating allegations that Huawei stole trade secrets from T-Mobile U.S. Inc (TMUS.O) and other U.S. businesses. The Journal said that an indictment could be coming soon on allegations that Huawei stole T-Mobile technology, called Tappy, which mimicked human fingers and was used to test smartphones. The action is the latest in a long list of actions taken to fight what some in the Trump administration call China’s cheating through intellectual property theft, illegal corporate subsidies and rules hampering U.S. corporations that want to sell their goods in China. In November, the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled an initiative to investigate China’s trade practices with a goal of bringing trade secret theft cases. At that time, Washington had announced an indictment against Chinese chipmaker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Ltd for stealing trade secrets from U.S. semiconductor company Micron Technology (MU.O) relating to research and development of memory storage devices. Jinhua, which has denied any wrongdoing, was put on a list of entities that cannot buy goods from U.S. firms. On Capitol Hill, Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Mike Gallagher, both Republicans, along with Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, introduced the bills which would require the president to ban the export of U.S. components to any Chinese telecommunications company that violates U.S. sanctions or export control laws. The bills specifically cite ZTE and Huawei, both of which are viewed with suspicion in the United States because of fears that their switches and other gear could be used to spy on Americans. Both have also been accused of failing to respect U.S. sanctions on Iran. “Huawei is effectively an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party whose founder and CEO was an engineer for the People’s Liberation Army,” Cotton wrote in a statement. “If Chinese telecom companies like Huawei violate our sanctions or export control laws, they should receive nothing less than the death penalty - which this denial order would provide.”... In addition to allegations of sanctions-busting and intellectual property theft, Washington has been pressing allies to refrain from buying Huawei’s switches and other gear because of fears they will be used by Beijing for espionage.... (End excerpts) Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...targeting-chinas-huawei-and-zte-idUSKCN1PA2LU
I have made the following "intelligent guess" at a US political forum on December 30, 2018: "Despite Trump's latest claim of 'big progress' in trade deal after his 'long and very good call with President Xi of China', I 'predict' the Huawei CFO will be jailed in the US in 2019. Only after seeing the jailing of Meng Wanzhou can the Chinese authorities finally awake to the reality of Trump's Jekyll-Hyde personality and his resolve to wreck the Chinese economy. Rarely does a 'soothsayer' hope his 'prediction' will never come true. Here I really hope my 'intelligent guess' is totally wrong or not so 'intelligent' after all".
