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Huawei employees are waiting for a shuttle bus to the company campus on April 12, 2019 in Shenzhen, China. A senior Huawei official said Google was talking to the US government on behalf of China's telecommunications giant.
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Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
Huawei employees are waiting for a shuttle bus to the company campus on April 12, 2019 in Shenzhen, China. A senior Huawei official said Google was talking to the US government on behalf of China's telecommunications giant.
Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
According to a senior official of Huawei, Google quietly assumes the role of emissary of Huawei, negotiating with the Department of Commerce on behalf of the Chinese telecommunications giant who was blacklisted in the United States.
The destinies of Huawei and Google are linked. Huawei is a leader in creating next generation wireless networks and the world's second largest smartphone maker. Google provides support for Android, the popular mobile operating system. The US government's ban on Huawei also prevents Google from updating the security of millions of existing Huawei phones and issuing Android licenses in the future.
In an interview this week with Huawei President Liang Hua, NPR asked him how his company would solve the problem of losing access to Google software.
"Google is a very responsible company and we have very good cooperation," said Liang through a translator at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China. "We are really looking forward to producing productive results through ongoing communication between Google and the Commerce Department."
When Huawei's ban came into effect and Google announced that it would cut ties, there was an uproar. A few days later, the Trump administration announced it would postpone some parts of the ban in August.
The disproportionate power of the American giants of technology is well understood around the world. Huawei's Liang is now relying on Google to influence the commerce department on behalf of his company.
"We really hope that communication between Google and the Commerce Department will lead to possible solutions," he said. "We believe that it is in the interest of consumers to be able to find a solution."
Last month, citing concerns over national security, the Trump administration added Huawei to a list of banned entities. US companies – from mobile service providers to chip makers like Intel and Qualcomm – will not be allowed to do business with Huawei. According to US officials, the company's technology could be used for surveillance. According to Liang, if no solution was found, Huawei should create its own software, which would be "difficult".
Liang says that he does not know the details of the discussions. In an e-mail, a Google spokesman said the company was engaging with the Commerce Department to ensure that Google "fully complied" with the new rules. The company declined to say whether its discussions with the government included directly or indirectly a plea for the possibility of taking charge of future Huawei devices.
NPR has interviewed several former senior officials of Commerce and the White House who fear that a private company, governed by its own interests, will seek a foreign partner formally listed on a blacklist for security reasons.
Eric Hirschhorn said that transforming Huawei into trading currency in the trade war between the United States and China was a strategic mistake. "I spent a lot of time [trying] to ensure that national security and trade remain separate, "he said, mixing the two" would have been unheard of. "
Hirschhorn served in the Commerce Department under the Obama administration as Under Secretary for Industry and Security.
According to former trade officials, it is customary for companies to contact the ministry to determine their ability to do business abroad. But the foreign partner is also often at the table, able to talk and be questioned.
Hirschhorn says the process changes once the US government has decided to take coercive action, as it did last month when the US government banned Huawei. He added that corporate financial data should not be considered alongside national security decisions. And, he says, if Huawei gets what he wants, thanks to Google's efforts, it sends a "very, very bad message" to people who break American rules.
"If I know that my government or my powerful trading partner can fundamentally repair a ticket if I get one, I will not worry about speed," Hirschhorn said.
The Commerce Department states that it responds regularly to requests from companies regarding regulatory requirements. He says that it is not new to this administration and that these discussions do not influence the actions of the forces of order.
Pallavi Gogoi of NPR contributed to this report.
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