• Huawei’s unveiling Thursday of its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 processor suggested that the Commerce Department had approved shipments of the new chip to Huawei.
  • The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for violating Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances.
  • The reaction is a sign of growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to thwart Huawei’s rise, nearly five years after it was added to a trade restriction list.

Republican U.S. lawmakers on Friday criticized the Biden administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel AI chip. 

Huawei’s actions on U.S. licence

The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for breaking Iranian sanctions, as part of a larger attempt to impede Beijing’s technological advancements. Being placed on the list requires suppliers to apply for a unique, challenging-to-obtain licence before shipping to the company. 

Intel has been able to supply Huawei with central processors for use in laptops thanks to a licence that was granted by the Trump administration in 2020. Although pro-China activists pushed the Biden administration to cancel the licence, many reluctantly agreed that it would expire at the end of the current year and not be extended.

The MateBook X Pro, Huawei’s first AI-enabled laptop, which was unveiled on Thursday and is powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 processor, shocked and infuriated them because it seemed to imply that shipments of the new chip to Huawei had been approved by the Commerce Department.

Huawei stunned the world in August last year by releasing a new phone that used a cutting-edge chip made by the banned Chinese company SMIC. This phone has since come to represent China’s technological comeback, even in the face of Washington’s continuous attempts to sabotage its ability to produce cutting-edge semiconductors. 

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Republican China lawmakers’ critique

The response, coming almost five years after Huawei was placed on a list of companies subject to trade restrictions, indicates mounting pressure on the Biden administration to take further action to impede the company’s ascent.

Export enforcement official Kevin Kurland stated this week at a Senate subcommittee hearing that Huawei’s access to U.S. technology has been “significantly impacted” by Washington’s restrictions on the company. He also emphasized that the objective was to prevent Huawei from misusing American technology for “malign activities,” rather than necessarily to stop it from expanding.