Even though security concerns on Huawei products has been
around since 2006, does Google’s latest move now makes Trump’s trade war with
China now has a e-commerce front?
By: Ringo Bones
Back around 2006 to 2007, tech-savvy Gen-X’ers’ primary
reason for “boycotting” Huawei and ZTE gear was primarily due to the Tibetan
Freedom Movement and how Beijing kept incrementally ratcheting their crackdown on
Uyghurs since the 1990s. Sadly such concerns were largely forgotten or dipped
below the radar of activist social media since a relatively unknown senator
from Illinois got elected to The White House. Then and now, no major news
correspondent manage to ask Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei about what he thinks about
consumers who chose to boycott Huawei products because of Tibetan Freedom
Movement and Uyghur crackdown concerns. But recently in February 2019, the
Huawei issue surfaced yet again – and in a way bigger manner – after the
company faced growing backlash from Western countries, primarily lead by the Trump
Administration, over possible risks posed by using Huawei products in
next-generation 5G mobile networks.
On May 20, 2019, Google decided to start restricting new
designs of Huawei smartphones access to some Google apps. This move comes after
the Trump Administration added Huawei to a list of companies that American
firms cannot trade with unless they have a “special license”. In a statement,
Google said it was “complying with the order and reviewing the implications”.
At the moment, Huawei declined to comment.
At the moment, existing Huawei smartphone users will still
be able to update apps and push through security fixes, as well as update
Google Play services, but when Google launches the next version of Android
later this year, it may not be available on Huawei devices. Future Huawei
devices may no longer have apps such as YouTube and Google Maps. Even though
Huawei has already a so-called Plan B to prepare them from such scenarios
brought about by the Trump Administration’s “Trade War”, the company probably
must now abandon its plan to overtake Samsung to become the world’s best-selling
smartphone brand by 2020.
