Huawei has borne the brunt of U.S. castigation
in the U.S.-China trade dispute as an alleged
national security risk, with the U.S. Commerce
Department blacklisting it in mid-May ,
effectively barring U.S. firm from selling or
transferring technology to it.
The IEEE restriction turned out to be an overly
cautious response to the blacklisting, the
organization said in a statement published
on its website last Sunday, and was dropped
after “requested clarification” from the
Commerce Department.
“Our initial, more restrictive approach was
motivated solely by our desire to protect our
volunteers and our members from legal risk,” the
statement said.
IEEE, which stands for the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers, was among
several leading U.S.-based global technology
standards-setting groups that imposed
restrictions on Huawei participation in their
activities, including the Wi-Fi Alliance and the
SD Association.
Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecom
gear and No. 2 smartphone manufacturer, said
that it had no comment on the announcement.
Zhang Haixia, a nanotechnology scientist at
Peking University, said she would rejoin the
organization after having resigned from two
IEEE boards last week.
“This is a moment that we, the academic
community, should be proud of,” Zhang wrote
in a social media post this week. “Let’s work
to make IEEE, an international academic
community, great again.”