China reluctant to hit back at US firms over Washington’s new Huawei ‘death sentence’

Name: US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China
Uploaded: 2020-08-20T13:30:15.000Z
Duration: 1 min 22 s
Description: US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China

Beijing has not yet announced any measures to hit back at new US curbs on Chinese technology giant Huawei

Analysts say Beijing still needs US technology and is keen to keep American businesses onside to help revive its economy

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Beijing is yet to announce countermeasures in response to new US curbs on Chinese technology giant Huawei. Photo: AP

Frank Tang

Published: 9:30pm, 20 Aug 2020Updated: 11:03pm, 20 Aug 2020

China is finding it hard to retaliate against US efforts to choke Huawei from access to key technology because any move to punish American businesses could harm the country’s still-fragile economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, analysts say.

Washington stepped up restrictions on the Chinese company’s access to chips and other technologies this week, tightening the noose on one of the country’s most prized technology champions and threatening its business as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer.

Beijing, while expressing anger at the US move, has not announced any measures to hit back, including curbs on American businesses operating in the world’s second biggest economy.

China said 15 months ago it would create an unreliable entity list of foreign individuals, businesses and organisations that posed a threat to the country, but so far it has refrained from unveiling details.

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US-China trade talks postponed as Trump says he does not want to talk to China

Beijing’s caution comes amid a shift in strategy from a tit-for-tat confrontation with Washington to an effort to prevent bilateral relations collapsing, especially ahead of the US presidential election on November 3.