Huawei won't be the last Chinese firm to be targeted by the US, concludes Wen Yang, a political expert at Fudan University, in an article in China Daily. Wen Yang believes that the US' actions against Chinese tech giants, such as the arrest of Huawei's CFO, as well as bans on selling components to certain companies, were in fact attacks on China's innovative enterprises. The researcher is confident that Huawei is only the most recent name in the target list and that other Chinese firms would eventually also be targeted.
Wen Yang noted that Beijing had so far failed to respond in kind, attempting to avoid increasing tensions with Washington. He wrote that it is likely that the trend will persist, but argued that such an approach would not protect Chinese tech companies.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on 1 December on a warrant from the US, accusing her of facilitating evasion of US sanctions against Iran. A Canadian judge has set the bail for Meng Wanzhou at $10 million.
READ MORE: Chinese Spy Chips Discovered in Apple, Amazon Data Centers, Report Claims
This is not the first time that the US has taken steps against major Chinese tech companies, having earlier banned ZTE and Huawei devices from being sold or used at military bases, citing fears that they could be used by Beijing to spy on the US Armed Forces. What is more, the US has imposed bans preventing American firms from selling electronic components to ZTE and the Fujian Jinhua Company (which produces dynamic random access memory integrated circuits), although the ban against ZTE didn't remain in place for long.