Political concerns regarding Huawei and its ties to the Chinese government continue to escalate. Apart from the EU discussing how to deal with China’s tech giant, the same concerns have also led to a recent executive order from US President Donald Trump that gives the federal government the power to stop domestic companies from buying foreign-made telecommunications equipment that are deemed a security risk. As a result of this executive order, Google has now severed Huawei’s Android licence.
According to news sources, Huawei has since been put on an "Entity List" — a list of companies that cannot purchase technology from US companies unless it’s government-approved — by the US Department of Commerce. As a result, Google is no longer able to sell Huawei a licence for its private Android tech. When asked for a comment, a Google spokesperson said only that "We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications."
With its license now denied, Huawei can only rely on the Android Open Source Project, effectively stopping them from accessing crucial Google services and apps. That would be a huge setback for the Chinese tech giant, which heavily uses an array of Android integrations on its devices. It’ll also mean that Huawei will not be able to release security updates for its Android devices unless they’re made open source.
However, if you’re a Huawei fan or owner of one of its devices, it’s not quite the end of the road for you. Huawei has announced earlier this year that it has developed its own operating system in light of the legal and political pressure from the US and EU. While there’s no information yet on how the Chinese company will proceed following Google’s severance of its licensing, it’ll be interesting to see when, or even whether, Huawei will implement its own OS instead. Definitely stay tuned for more updates to come as the story progresses.
And for more tech news, Elon Musk reportedly announced in an all-staff email that Tesla will be out of money in 10 months time.
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