China To Retaliate Against US By Limiting Tech Exports

In what could be seen as a retaliation by China in the escalating trade war with the U.S., China is gearing up to pull back some exports of tech to the U.S.

Reuters, citing Hu Xijin, the chief editor of China’s Global Times newspaper, reported that in a tweet he said the country is “building a management mechanism to protect China’s key technologies.” If China moved forward, it would imply a retaliation to the move by the U.S. government to blacklist Huawei Technology, preventing it from doing business in the U.S. “This is a major step to improve its system and also a move to counter U.S. crackdown,” the editor of the pro-Chinese government paper said. “Once taking effect, some technology exports to the U.S. will be subject to the control.”

While the Global Times isn’t the official newspaper of the Communist Party, the views expressed in it are thought to be that of the leaders. Reuters noted that around the time Hu was tweeting, China’s state media Xinhua reported the National Development and Reform Commission announced it would create a study to develop a “national technological security management list system.”

In May the White House took the step to blacklist Huawei, citing national security concerns, which was seen as a major blow to the Chinese telecom company. Since then Google and Facebook have announced their apps wouldn’t be preinstalled on any upcoming Huawei handsets. In a recent interview with Reuters, Huawei Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei said the move by the White House will hurt the lead Huawei has built over the past two years. He added that the company will ramp up its chip supply or find other options to remain ahead in the smartphone and 5G markets. Following the initial announcement, the U.S. Department of Commerce said it was looking to scale back some of the restrictions on the company to prevent any interruptions to existing network operations and equipment.