Chinese telecom giant Huawei faced new threats to its business Wednesday as some European firms followed the U.S. tech industry in suspending dealings with the company.
A man uses two smartphones at once outside a Huawei store in Beijing on Monday. Ng Han Guan/Associated Press
Two British telecom companies, Vodafone and a unit of BT Group, said they would suspend the use of Huawei telephones in their new high-speed 5G networks. And in a potentially more consequential blow, U.K. chip designer Arm Holdings, an important supplier to Huawei, said it was “complying with all of the latest restrictions set forth by the U.S. government.”
The Trump administration last week ordered companies to stop selling U.S. technology to Huawei, calling the company a potential security threat that could use its telecom equipment to spy on other countries. That prompted Google and others to begin suspending dealings with the firm.
Huawei has vigorously denied the spying claims, and the Trump Administration allegation that the Chinese government exerts unhealthy influence on Huawei.
“We value our close relations with our partners, but recognize the pressure some of them are under, as a result of politically motivated decisions,” Huawei said in a statement Wednesday. “We are confident this regrettable situation can be resolved and our priority remains to continue to deliver world-class technology and products to our customers around the world.”
With $105 billion in global sales last year, Huawei is the world’s largest provider of equipment used in 5G telecom networks, and the second largest seller of smartphones.
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