Blacklisting Honor will backfire on US, Chinese analysts warn



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An honor store in Shanghai Photo: CFP

An honor store in Shanghai Photo: CFP

The recent proposal by some U.S. lawmakers to add Honor, Huawei’s former smartphone unit, to a blacklist is intentionally provocative and unreasonable, Chinese analysts said on Sunday, warning that a possible ban on the Chinese company would also hurt to many American companies, including Qualcomm. and Intel.

In a letter Friday, a group of 14 Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives asked the US Department of Commerce to add the Chinese company to the US government’s economic blacklist, according to a Reuters report.

Republican lawmakers argued that Honor was split “in an effort to evade US export control policies designed to keep US technology and software out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” The letter quoted analysts as saying that “Honor’s sale gave it access to the semiconductor chips and software it relied on and likely would have been blocked if the divestiture had not taken place.”

In response, the US Department of Commerce said the agency “is constantly reviewing available information to identify potential additions to the entity list.”

“The proposal is totally unreasonable and aims to further stir up hostility between China and the United States,” Ma Jihua, a senior telecommunications industry analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that Honor is already a independent unit outside of Huawei and there. There is no reason for the United States to arbitrarily choose and ban the Chinese brand of smartphones.

Huawei officially announced the divestiture of the Honor smartphone sub-brand in November 2020. The sale included all of Honor’s assets, and Huawei will not own any shares in the new company.

After the spin-off, Honor quickly resumed cooperation with US chipmakers, including Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, and launched a new series of phones.

“A ban on Honor will only hurt America’s own companies like Qualcomm rather than hamper China’s technological rise,” Ma said, adding that Honor was now just a smartphone brand similar to d ‘other domestic companies such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, which have not been targeted by the United States.

Honor has experienced strong growth momentum. In May and June, Honor sales were up 39% and 27% month over month, respectively. Judging by preliminary data from July, Honor’s market share is still showing strong momentum and heading for a full recovery, according to market research firm Counterpoint.

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