We all have been watching the news concerning the trade war between China and the US. We have seen it move into the technology sector and the US adding Huawei to the trade blacklist causing the Western tech companies including Google to pull back their trade agreements with the Chinese tech giant, Huawei.
So far, we have been covering the news from the Huawei’s perspective or Washington’s. But today we are bringing the perspective of a major player in the tech industry; Google. Google is the tech behemoth of the US that is considered synonymous with the Internet.
Google’s senior executives have raised their concern about putting national security at risk by continuing the ban against Huawei. In fact, they are asking the US administration to make an exemption for Google from the ban. While yes, the ban will cause problems for the Chinese company, according to experts; this will cause Huawei to become much more independent in the future if the ban continues.
Huawei will be forced to carry out the development of its technologies on home turf and will disrupt the dominance of the US companies in this sphere when you look at the long game. Google would be at the front of this disruption. If the ban is continued, Google won’t be able to provide any updates to the Android OS on Huawei devices thus forcing Huawei to develop its own version of the software (something that Huawei has already been working on).
Furthermore, Google is also saying that a Huawei-modified version of the Android would be easier to hack. Google says, ‘Like other US companies, we’re engaging with the Department of Commerce to ensure we’re in full compliance with its requirements and temporary licence. Our focus is on protecting the security of Google users on the millions of existing Huawei handsets in the US and around the world.’
Do you think that the concerns raised by Google will cause the US government to lift the ban from Huawei? Do let us know!