Under the new rules, announced by the Department of Commerce, Huawei needs a special licence to obtain semiconductors, including chips produced abroad with U.S. software or technology.

Reuters quoted a department source as saying 38 affiliates of Huawei in 21 countries would be added to the U.S. government’s economic blacklist.

This would increase the total number of its blacklisted customers to 152 since Huawei was first added in May 2019, the news agency reported.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State, Mr Michael Pompeo, hailed the move, reiterating the administration’s allegation that Huawei spies for the Chinese government.

The company denies the claims, and dismisses them as part of a protectionist agenda.

“Today, our government enacted several measures to protect U.S. national security, our citizens’ privacy, and the integrity of our 5G infrastructure from Beijing’s malign influence.

“This measure follows the more limited expansion of the Foreign Direct Product Rule in May, which Huawei has continuously tried to evade.

“We will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to undermine the privacy of our citizens, our businesses’ intellectual property, or the integrity of next-generation networks worldwide,” Pompeo said.

He stated that the blacklisted affiliates were given enough time to “identify and shift to other sources of equipment, software, and technology and wind-down their operations”.

U.S.-China relations have worsened since 2019 over allegations of unfair trade practices, intellectual property theft and cyber espionage by the President Donal Trump administration against the Chinese.

Since then, the administration has been pressuring U.S. allies around the world to cut off Huawei.(NAN)