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Huawei, the Chinese manufacturer targeted by a Trump administration trade ban, is expected to dismiss a substantial number of people in the US in the coming weeks.
The number of individuals affected remains unclear but the layoffs, at the telecoms kit maker's US R&D subsidiary, Futurewei Technologies, could affect hundreds of workers in California, Texas, and Washington, according to The Wall Street Journal. Futurewei currently employs more than 800 people in the US.
On May 16, the beleaguered manufacturer, along with 68 of its affiliates, was placed on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, which forbids companies subject to US law from doing business with the firm without special permission from the US government.
Four days later, Huawei was given a 90-day General License so that its customers have time to make deals with new suppliers. When the General License expires on August 19, the ban will go into effect unless circumstances change.
US officials believe Huawei cannot be trusted because the company cannot resist demands by the Chinese government to compromise its equipment to assist with state-sponsored spying. No public evidence of this has been presented.
[...] Layoffs would be consistent with the broader financial impact of the pending Huawei trade ban. In June, at an event at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China, company founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, predicted the telecom firm's revenue will reach only about $100bn in 2019 and 2020, about $30bn less than previously anticipated in the next two years. But he said the company will emerge stronger by 2021.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 18 2019, @06:49PM (2 children)
Actually, thank that Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about. I don't think Trump is bright enough to have formulated the anti-Huawei thing all by himself.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @07:37PM (1 child)
I don't think Trump is bright enough to have formulated the anti-Huawei thing all by himself.
I've pointed this out but it bears repeating: it is profoundly dangerous to ascribe to stupidity what is in fact malice. Whether it was Trump personally, or one of his "advisers" doesn't really matter, the motive isn't stupidity, or driven by a fundamental lack of understanding on how things work, be they economies, geopolitics, or whatever, the motive is ethnocentric nationalism and an "Amerika ueber Alles" mentality.
The people aren't stupid (not even Trump, though he probably brings up the bottom of the curve in some respects). He is masterful at manipulation and running the con. He is not, generally speaking, a stupid man. He is an evil, viscous, nasty, small minded women-hating, non-rich hating, non-white hating racist bigot brimming over with malice and with no moral compass, willing to do just about anything regardless of how many millions it hurts (including many in his own base), but it is very, very dangerous to dismiss him and his ilk as stupid, or to mistake their malice for stupidity.
They no exactly what they're doing, and probably have a pretty good idea of what the consequences will be. Unlike most of us, they just don't care.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by legont on Friday July 19 2019, @01:45AM
Trump is simply a businessman who usually gets what he wants, period. His track record of running the US as one of his businesses is so far almost perfect in this regard.
One may or may not like his goals, but the one - grows above 3% - will get him reelected. With any luck he will trigger a wage inflation by 2020 and become a hero of Roosevelt scale.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.