U.S. Allows Huawei To Buy Auto Chips

US officials have approved license applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars for China's blacklisted telecom company Huawei to buy chips for its growing auto component business, two people familiar with the matter said, Karen Freifield reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The decision by the Biden Administration to grant waivers met scathing GOP criticism.

Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, has been hobbled by trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on the sale of chips and other components used in its network gear and smartphones businesses.

The Biden administration has been reinforcing the hard line on exports to Huawei, denying licenses to sell chips to Huawei for use in or with 5g devices.

But in recent weeks and months, people familiar with the application process told Reuters the US has granted licenses authorizing suppliers to sell chips to Huawei for such vehicle components as video screens and sensors. The approvals come as Huawei pivots its business toward items that are less susceptible to US trade bans.

Not everyone is a fan. Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who has been deeply critical of Huawei in the past, said in a statement, "It's unacceptable for the Biden administration to ease the pressure campaign against Chinese spy companies like Huawei."

In response to the Reuters report, Senator Marco Rubio called the move "yet another example of President Biden's failure to protect America's economic and national security."

He said Huawei has a long history of exporting Beijing's "digital authoritarianism" and pressed the Biden Administration to increase penalties and restrictions on Huawei and other Chinese tech companies "instead of granting waivers."

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