Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new sanctions on Huawei personnel on Wednesday.
“The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of the Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally,” Pompeo said at a press conference. The details of the sanctions were not immediately available.
In comments on China’s takeover of Hong Kong over the past several weeks, Pompeo implied that other world nations were becoming more suspicious of China’s influence.
“We have to deal with China as it is, not as we wish it to be,” Pompeo said. “Other nations are arriving at the same conclusion.”
Pompeo’s remarks came after the British government said it would ban Huawei from all 5G networks in the country. In January of this year Britain announced that Huawei would build some of the country’s 5G infrastructure, but the country reversed course following the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. pressure, and China’s assertion of control over Hong Kong, which was a former British colony.
The U.S. is attempting to prevent other European nations from allowing Huawei to gain a foothold in the continent. U.S. government agencies have repeatedly warned that the Chinese Communist Party can use Huawei networks and infrastructure to spy on users. Huawei is charged in the U.S. with racketeering, fraud, and evading American sanctions on Iran and North Korea.