US defends approving licenses for auto chips for Huawei

The Biden administration, which was criticized this week for approving licenses for auto chips for Huawei, said it has not changed the policy on restricting sales of goods and technology to the Chinese company that was put in place during the Trump presidency.

“The policy has not been eased or amended,” a Commerce Department spokesperson said.

The comments came in response to demands from Sen Marco Rubio that U.S. officials explain why they approved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of auto chip sales to the company, as reported by Reuters this week.

Rubio called the move “yet another example of President Biden’s failure to protect America’s economic and national security.”

Huawei was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019, after the Trump administration said it was operating contrary to national security and foreign policy interests.

The so-called “entity list” restricts suppliers from selling U.S. goods and technology to the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker.