Huawei executive says US export ban will cost American jobs

Huawei’s chief security officer, Andy Purdy has confidently admitted that Huawei will survive the US pressure campaign against them but unsure how American jobs may fare.

Purdy who is a former head of the US Department of Homeland Security’s national cybersecurity division has told reporters that the Trump Administration is taking the wrong steps to protect the country, to the detriment of American companies.

“Given the United States’ vulnerability in cyberspace, I think the government is bending over backwards to make America safe, but they’re going too far,” Purdy said.

“If we are forced to go our way, we’ll be okay. But in the long term, I don’t know that Huawei will come back (to America) and I think America will be hurt.”

Andy Purdy, Huawei Chief Security Officer

The US government says the Chinese company poses a national security risk because Beijing government officials could use its technology to spy on Americans. Huawei fiercely denies this. The White House imposed restrictions on using government funds to buy Huawei telecom equipment and banning American companies from selling to Huawei.

US President Donald Trump, after meeting last month with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, said he would relax the ban, though it remains unclear what and when American suppliers can restart sales to the Chinese company.

As trade talks drag on, American companies have spoken up about the harm to their business caused by the ban, and have looked for ways around it.

Huawei purchased $11 billion in American goods in 2018, according to its annual report. Purdy said if the company is no longer able to do that, it could hurt workers at its American suppliers like Google, Intel and Qualcomm.

“The impact on American jobs is going to be very significant,” Purdy said.

Asked for comment, the Commerce Department pointed to an address by Secretary Wilbur Ross on July 9 referencing the easing of the ban. He said Commerce would issue licenses to American companies to sell to Huawei “where there is no threat to US national security.”

“The private sector must act responsibly, and protect technologies with national security ramifications,” Ross said in the address. “It is wrong to trade secret or sensitive IP and source codes for access to a foreign market, however lucrative that market might be.”

Although Purdy’s comments referred to jobs at the American companies Huawei buys from, there have also been reports that Huawei is scaling down its US operations. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Huawei is planning to lay off hundreds of workers from its US-based research and development operations, citing people familiar with the matter.

Though Huawei downloaded its projected revenue growth for 2019 by $30 billion, Purdy said the company will ultimately survive even if it is cut off from the United States altogether.

“We’re going to be fine,” Purdy said. “But is America going to be fine?”

Source: CNN