Report: Google Fights to Maintain Connection to Huawei

Google feels the future is in China
Jason Lee/AFP/Getty

The Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe at Google are reportedly attempting to maintain business ties with Chinese tech giant Huawei despite the company’s addition to the entity list by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Breitbart News reported in May that tech giant Google temporarily stopped its plan to suspend all Android licenses used by Chinese tech manufacturer Huawei. Google’s initial plans to cut ties with Huawei were made after Washington chose to place Huawei on the “entity list” which means that American companies must obtain a license in order to do business with the Chinese firm. As a result, Google planned to prevent Huawei from licensing its Android mobile operating system and forcing the firm to use a public version of Android obtained through the Android Open Source Project.

A short while later, the Department of Commerce chose to grant Huawei a license of 90 days so it could help existing customers. Google chose to follow the Department of Commerce in allowing Huawei a 90-day grace period in which the company could transition over to a new mobile operating system. But now, the Financial Times reports that Google is attempting to maintain ties to Huawei despite the addition of the company to the entity list.

The tech giant is reportedly lobbying the U.S. government to allow it to do business with the company according to three people familiar with Google’s continued talks with the Department of Commerce. The source told the Financial Times: “Google has been arguing that by stopping it from dealing with Huawei, the US risks creating two kinds of Android operating system: the genuine version and a hybrid one. The hybrid one is likely to have more bugs in it than the Google one, and so could put Huawei phones more at risk of being hacked, not least by China.”

A Google spokesperson told Business Insider when questioned that:  “like other US companies, we’re engaging with the Department of Commerce to ensure we’re in full compliance with its requirements and temporary license. Our focus is protecting the security of Google users on the millions of existing Huawei handsets in the US and around the world.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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