US officials undecided whether to blacklist HONOR like Huawei

Security agencies in the United States are debating whether to place the Chinese phone maker on an export blacklist.

File photo: One of the flagship phones in the MWC 2019

Will they do the same thing too?

As per The Washington Post, officials from four US Federal agencies are divided on whether HONOR should be added to the US Commerce Department's Entity List. Because the list disallows the export of US technology without a license, companies such as Google, Qualcomm, Intel, and Microsoft would be unable to do business with the new standalone company if it was added to it.

They also said that the officials from Pentagon and Energy Department had favored the blacklisting of the Chinese company while its counterparts from the Commerce Department and State Department had disagreed with the idea. If no agreement is reached on both sides, the matter may be escalated to the cabinet level. In case there's still no progress, the decision will be up to US President Biden.

The head of Eurasia Group's global technology policy practice, Paul Triolo mentioned that it will be difficult to make the same national security argument that had put Huawei on the ban list. After all, Honor does not manufacture or sell telecommunications equipment, and the company does not sell any of its products in the United States.

To recall in November last year, Huawei had sold its sub-brand HONOR to a consortium of over 30 agents and has formed a company called the Shenzen Zhixin New Information Technology that now owns the HONOR. Huawei, on the other hand, claims that they won't hold any shares or be part of any business management or deciding activities on the new standalone tech firm.

Reuters also mentioned that the US government had no reason to place restrictions against HONOR after it got separated from Huawei.

It remains to be seen how this whole issue will play out, in the meantime stay tuned with us to keep you informed of any details that may come to light.

What do you guys think?

Sources: The Washington Post, Reuters