Here’s everything about Huawei ban and the “Entity List”

For this past two weeks, the topic which a lot of you might be searching on Google is probably “Huawei ban” and also the “Entity List”. During the lunch break, we saw many of the people are talking about this topic. The trade war between the US and China will prolong for a longer period than we expect. Today, we would like to share you all about these two topics.

What is “Entity List”?

According to the US Department of Commerce, the Entity List has a list of foreign companies which could pose a national threat to the United States. This includes tech companies, governments officials and also individuals. This list has over 270-pages with the list of companies from various companies such as China, Iran, Russia, and the UK.

Why Huawei is added into the Entity List?

On 15th May, Trump’s administration signs an order to add the Chinese tech company, Huawei into its Entity List. This is because the Department of Commerce suspects Huawei activities in the US could be a national threat to the United States.

Once a company or individual name is added to this list, they are not allowed to continue any kind of business with the US companies. This list has causes most of the tech companies in the US to stop its business with Huawei. According to the US Department of Commerce, the US companies can continue doing their business with Huawei. However, a license needed to be applied to the Bureau of Industry and Security.

Does the ban on Huawei affects Huawei?

Many of us know that Huawei smartphone is one of the top most used smartphone in the world. Now the US government has banned Huawei from doing business with US tech companies, this has really affected Huawei business tremendously.

The first company to pull the plug out was Google. Google blocks all its access to Huawei. This includes the Android license and Google’s proprietary applications. This means Huawei’s future smartphones will not be able to use the Google Android operating system. Huawei can only use the open-source Android only which does not has Google applications such as Gmail, YouTube and the worst is Google Play Store. Without Google Play Store and Android the whole smartphone will be useless to use.

Other than that, Huawei is also affected by this ban when the US chipmakers such as Intel and Qualcomm suspend its partnership with Huawei. Most of the Huawei devices are powered by Intel and Qualcomm chipsets. Huawei has the only option to create its own chips without these tech companies. The latest update we receive was ARM has also suspended its partnership with Huawei too. Huawei creates its own Kirin processor. That’s the main processor which is being used inside the Huawei P30 Pro and the upcoming Huawei Mate X. However, the technology behind it is from ARM.

Does your current Huawei device is affected by this restriction?

Existing Huawei devices won’t be affected by this restriction. According to a statement from Google spokesperson:

Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices

In conclusion, the US government has provided a temporary license which lasts until August this year. Google has confirmed it will continue to provide its technical support for Huawei only for 90 days. After that, Huawei is on its own. We already receive updates that Huawei is developing its own operating system which has the plan to release on either end of this year or beginning of 2020.