China attacks ‘unscrupulous’ US after reports of further crackdown on Huawei

China has reacted angrily to reports that the United States has stopped approving licences for American companies to export most items to China's hi-tech company Huawei, accusing the US of deliberately targeting Chinese companies under the pretext of national security.

US officials are creating a new formal policy of denial for shipping items to Huawei that would include items below the 5G level, including 4G items, wifi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing and cloud items, according to a Reuters report that quoted unnamed sources.

Another source told Reuters the move was expected to reflect the Biden administration's tightening of policy on Huawei over the past year. Licences for 4G chips that could not be used for 5G, which might have been approved earlier, were being denied, the person said.

In November, the Biden administration banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE because they pose an "unacceptable risk" to US national security.

At a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, accused the United States of deliberately using an overly broad notion of national security to suppress Chinese firms.

"China strongly opposes the US's unscrupulous and unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power," Mao said.

"Such moves violate the principle of market economy and international trade rules, dampen international confidence in the US business environment," she told reporters.

A US commerce department spokesperson said officials "continually assess our policies and regulations" but did not comment on talks with specific companies.

Huawei and Qualcomm declined to comment. Bloomberg and the Financial Times earlier reported the move.

American officials placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019 restricting most US suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company unless they were granted licences. Officials continued to tighten the controls to cut off Huawei's ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products, although licences were granted that allowed Huawei to receive some products. For example, suppliers to Huawei got licences worth $61bn to sell to the telecoms equipment giant from April through November 2021.

Huawei has faced US export restrictions around items for 5G and other technologies for several years, but the US Department of Commerce has granted licences for some American firms to sell certain goods and technologies to the company. Qualcomm in 2020 received permission to sell 4G smartphone chips to Huawei.

In December, Huawei said its overall revenue was about $91.53bn, down only slightly from 2021 when US sanctions caused its sales to fall by nearly a third.