Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is asking a US federal court to throw out a rule that bars rural telecom carriers from using government money to purchase its equipment on security grounds.
The lawsuit announced yesterday is Huawei’s second legal challenge this year to the efforts of US President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce its already minimal US market presence.
The company is scrambling to preserve its global sales of smartphones and network gear following sanctions announced in May that limit access to US components and technology.
Huawei, which says it is employee-owned and has no government ties, denies US accusations it is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying.
Huawei is at the center of US-Chinese tension over Beijing’s technology ambitions and complaints the communist government steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over know-how.
Huawei’s lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana says the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acted improperly when it voted last month to bar rural carriers from using government subsidies to buy equipment from Huawei or its Chinese rival, ZTE Corp (中興).
The decision “is based on politics, not security,” Huawei chief legal officer Song Liuping (宋柳平) told a news conference.
The lawsuit says the FCC exceeded its authority by making national security judgments, designated Huawei a threat without evidence and violated its own procedures by adopting a rule without citing a legal basis.
US courts have traditionally been reluctant to second-guess government judgements about national security.
In a separate lawsuit filed in March, Huawei is asking the US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas to strike down a ban on the US government using its equipment or dealing with any contractor that does.
Meanwhile, US prosecutors are trying to extradite Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wangzhou (孟晚舟) from Canada to face charges she lied to banks about dealings with Iran.
Huawei said the FCC rule would hurt US rural carriers, which buy the Chinese vendor’s equipment because other major suppliers, such as Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB, are more expensive.
While potential lost sales are minimal, if the rule is allowed to stand, Huawei might suffer “reputational losses” that would “have a further impact on our business,” Huawei said.
Huawei’s US sales plunged after a US congressional panel warned in 2012 that the company and ZTE were security risks and told carriers to avoid them.
However, its sales in Europe and developing markets in Asia and Africa have risen steadily.
Huawei earlier reported its global sales rose 24.4 percent in the first nine months of this year over a year earlier to 610.8 billion yuan (US$86 billion).
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS