No Further U.S. Sales to ‘Foreign Adversary’ Huawei

Temporarily overshadowed by President Trump’s dramatic handshake with Kim Jong-Un at the Korean Demilitarized Zone yesterday was a commitment he made the day before to Kim’s patron: Communist China’s Xi Jinping.

The promise to Xi involved continued sales of U.S. equipment to Huawei – a Chinese telecommunications conglomerate now widely recognized as a weapon being used to advance his “China Dream” of world domination.  Mr. Trump himself has formally identified Huawei as a “foreign adversary,” whose networks and products constitute “a national emergency.”

Fortunately, Mr. Trump subsequently placed a caveat on further sales to Huawei, declaring: “I’m talking about equipment where there is no great national emergency problem with it.” As a practical matter, that means any assistance to Huawei’s competitiveness and efficiency – a bar that is likely to be established in forthcoming, bipartisan legislation adopted by veto-proof majorities.