China warns of sweeping blacklist of companies after Huawei blocks

China said it would establish a list of so-called “unreliable” entities it says damage the interests of domestic firms, a sweeping order that could potentially affect thousands of foreign firms as tensions escalate after the US blacklisted Huawei Technologies.

 

China will set up a mechanism listing foreign enterprises, organisations, and individuals that don’t obey market rules, violate contracts and block, cut off supply for non-commercial reasons or severely damage the legitimate interests of Chinese firms, China’s ministry of commerce spokesman Gao Feng said.

 

The vague wording of the Chinese state media report opens the door for Beijing to target a broad swathe of the global tech industry — from US giants like Alphabet’s Google, Qualcomm and Intel to even non-American suppliers that have cut off China’s largest technology firm. Those run the gamut from Japan’s Toshiba to Britain’s Arm.

 

“Surely firms that have announced cutting supplies to Huawei, such as Panasonic and Toshiba, would be under threat,” said Michelle Lam, Greater China economist at Societe Generale.