WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican lawmakers on Friday criticized the Biden administration after sanctioned Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei this week unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered laptop from Intel (NASDAQ:).
The United States placed Huawei on a trade block list in 2019 over Iran-related sanctions violations, part of a broader effort to impede Beijing’s technological advances.
Placing on the list means the company’s U.S. suppliers must obtain a special, hard-to-get license before shipping products there.
One such license, issued by the Trump administration, allowed Intel to supply Huawei with central processing units for use in laptops starting in 2020. Hardliners in China have called on the Biden administration to revoke the license, but many have agreed it will expire later this year. year and is not renewed.
Huawei’s unveiling on Thursday of its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro, equipped with a new Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, shocked and angered them as it hinted that the Commerce Department had approved the new chip for Huawei.
GOP spokeswoman Elise Stefanik said in a post on social media platform X that the laptop “makes it clear” that the Commerce Department has given the go-ahead for Huawei to supply the new chip.
“It is unacceptable that the Biden administration is actively working to undermine U.S. national security by giving our greatest strategic adversary access to advanced American technology,” Stefanik said.
The Commerce Department declined to comment. Huawei and Intel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another Republican spokesman, Michael McCaul, echoed Stefanik’s comments in a statement emailed to Reuters. “These allegations must stop,” he said. “Two years ago I was told that Huawei’s licenses would cease. Today the policy has not changed.”
A source familiar with the situation said the chips were supplied under an existing license. They are not affected by recent widespread restrictions on the supply of artificial intelligence chips to China, the source and another person said.