In a classic case of being all hat and no cattle, the US’ sanctions on China has proven to be of no major effect at all. Despite being blacklisted by the US government for years, Huawei has somehow managed to fund research and development projects worth millions of dollars in the US
US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping. US sanctions have had very little effect on China’s technological development. Image Credit: Reuters
Even though the US has been very loud and vocal about imposing sanctions on China, it seems that their sanctions are all noise, while lacking the teeth to have a proper bite. In other words, it’s a classic case of being all hat and no cattle.
A recent report by Bloomberg has revealed that despite sanctions running years now, Chinese tech giant Huawei has been secretly financing several research projects in the United States.
This covert funding, channelled through a Washington-based research foundation called Optica, has been supporting cutting-edge research at prestigious American universities, including Harvard.
The investigation by Bloomberg uncovered that Huawei has been the sole financial supporter of a research competition managed by Optica, which has been awarding millions of dollars since 2022.
This competition has attracted numerous proposals from scientists, including those from top US universities that have prohibited collaboration with Huawei due to national security concerns.
The concern surrounding this covert funding revolves around the potential for the research to provide China with advancements in both defence contracting and commercial interests.
