Google has reportedly suspended its licenses and product-sharing agreements with Chinese communications giant Huawei, as Washington accuses the company of spying for Beijing.
The Silicon Valley tech giant has cut its business deals with Huawei that involve the transfer of hardware and software.
Huawei will lose access to Android operating system updates, and its forthcoming smart-phones will be shut out of some Google applications, including the Google Play Store and G-mail applications.
The Chinese firm however will still have access to the open source version of the Android operating system.
Washington repeatedly accused Huawei of installing so-called ‘backdoors’ into its products on behalf of the Chinese government.
The heads of six US intelligence agencies warned American citizens against using Huawei products last year, and the Chinese company’s phones were banned from US military bases shortly afterwards.
The US Commerce Department added Huawei to its blacklist. The ban forbids Huawei from buying parts or technology from US suppliers, effectively halting its operations until it can replace American parts with its own.
Coupled with the latest development from Google, the ban will likely see Huawei remain in place or tumble in the global smart-phone market.
The Chinese company overtook Apple at the beginning of the month to become the second biggest manufacturer worldwide, after South Korea’s Samsung.
Google’s work in China had caused some consternation at the Pentagon. Although Google insists its projects there – including an AI lab in Beijing – have strictly peaceful applications.
Google was contracted in 2017 to create an AI program to analyze video footage from drones using machine learning, a project codenamed ‘Project Maven’ by the Pentagon.
However, Google decided not to renew the contract last year, after receiving backlash from its employees.
Google’s competitors, Microsoft and Amazon, have both lent their cloud computing power to the Pentagon to help the military develop its AI projects.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
