美国国家公共电台 NPR Huawei Chairman Hopeful Google Can Influence U.S. Officials（在线收听）

NOEL KING, HOST:

Turning to some news here in the U.S. on Huawei. Google has been quietly assuming the role of emissary for Huawei after the Chinese telecom company was blacklisted by the Trump administration. Google is, in effect, negotiating with the Commerce Department on Huawei's behalf. That's according to a senior official at Huawei. NPR's Aarti Shahani has that story.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: The fates of Huawei and Google are intertwined. Huawei is a leader in creating next-generation wireless networks, and it's the world's No. 2 maker of smartphones. Google provides support for Android, the popular operating system. The U.S. government ban against Huawei also blocks Google from giving security updates to millions of existing Huawei phones and from issuing Android licenses in the future. In an interview this week with Huawei chairman Liang Hua, NPR asked him how his company would resolve the problem of losing access to Google software.

LIANG HUA: (Through interpreter) Google is a very responsible company. We have maintained a very good cooperation with each other.

SHAHANI: He's speaking through a translator at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. When the ban first went into effect and Google announced it would cut ties, there was an outcry. Days later, the Trump administration said it would postpone parts of the ban until August. The outsized power of American tech giants is well-understood the world over. Huawei's Liang is now leaning on Google to influence the Department of Commerce on his company's behalf.

HUA: (Through interpreter) We really look forward to productive results from the communication that Google is currently having with the Commerce Department.

SHAHANI: Last month, citing national security concerns, the Trump administration added Huawei to a list of banned entities. American companies, from mobile providers to chipmakers like Intel and Qualcomm, will not be allowed to do business with Huawei. That's because, according to U.S. officials, the company's technology could be used for surveillance. If a resolution isn't reached, Liang says, Huawei will have to build its own software, which would be difficult.

HUA: (Through interpreter) So we really hope that there were possible remedies coming out of the communication between Google and the Commerce Department. And we think that it is in the benefit of the consumers if they could work out a solution.

SHAHANI: Liang says he does not know the details of the talks. In an email, a Google spokesperson says the company is engaging with the Department of Commerce to ensure Google is in full compliance with the new rules. The company declined to say if its talks with the government had included directly or indirectly advocating for the ability to support future Huawei devices.

NPR interviewed several former senior officials at Commerce and the White House who are concerned that a private company, governed by its own self-interest, is advocating at this juncture, where the foreign partner has been officially blacklisted for security concerns. Eric Hirschhorn says turning Huawei into a bargaining chip in the U.S.-China trade war was a strategic mistake.

ERIC HIRSCHHORN: I spent a lot of time trying to make sure that national security and trade were kept separate.

SHAHANI: Hirschhorn served in the Department of Commerce during the Obama administration as under secretary for Industry and Security. According to former Commerce officials, it's standard for companies to reach out to the department about their ability to do business abroad. But the foreign partner is often at the table too, able to talk and be questioned.

Hirschhorn says that changes once the U.S. government decides to take enforcement action, as it did last month when it banned Huawei. Company financials should not be considered alongside national security decisions, he says. If Huawei gets what it wants vis a vis Google's effort, he says, that sends a very, very bad message to people who break American rules.

HIRSCHHORN: If I know that my government or my powerful business partner can basically fix a ticket if I get one, I won't worry about speeding.

SHAHANI: The Commerce Department says it routinely responds to inquiries from companies about regulatory requirements. This is not new to this administration, nor do these discussions influence law enforcement actions.

Aarti Shahani, NPR News.

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KING: And we need to note that Google is a financial sponsor of NPR.