Washington (AFP)

The prospect of easing US sanctions against Chinese Huawei has aroused the wrath of US officials and some skepticism about its consequences, while Beijing and Washington are in the thick of the trade.

After banning US companies in the spring from selling certain components and technologies to the Chinese telecoms giant amidst China-US trade tensions, President Donald Trump on Saturday mentioned a possible easing of restrictions, including the sale of equipment. which does not pose a great problem of national security ".

On Sunday, his economic adviser Larry Kudlow added that there was a "good chance" that US companies could obtain licenses to sell products to the world leader in 5G (the ultra fast mobile internet) and current world number two. smartphones.

The United States suspects Huawei's systems of being used by Beijing for espionage purposes, which the group has consistently denied.

But for some US parliamentarians, partly going back to sanctions, Donald Trump is sacrificing national security.

"If President Trump has agreed to reconsider the recent sanctions against Huawei, then we will have to reinstate them by a law," tweeted the Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

The same is true of his colleague Democrat Chuck Schumer, who says that "Huawei is one of the (rare) effective levers to make China fair + in international trade."

- Credibility -

Sanctions mitigation is "extremely worrying" and will make negotiations with China more difficult, Republican Rep. Jim Banks said.

For Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor and former ambassador to Russia, Donald Trump's flip-flop invalidates his own argument.

"When you tell the world that Huawei is a threat to national security and that you say the opposite the next day, you are discrediting the initial argument about national security," he said on Twitter.

In any case, the situation should remain nebulous on this file as the bitter trade negotiations, that the two powers have promised this weekend to resume, do not succeed.

"Huawei is a complicated situation," which will be discussed as part of a broader trade deal, Donald Trump warned himself.

It is difficult for the time being to know what a relaxation of the sanctions may have consequences for Huawei, which is already suffering the effects of US sanctions through a sharp decline in sales.

The group is highly dependent on American technologies and components, from Intel's micro-processors to the Android mobile operating system (Google) to a multitude of services and applications, such as Facebook.

"We take note of President Trump this weekend about Huawei and have nothing to add at this time," commented a spokesman for the Chinese group.

For analyst Richard Windsor, author of the blog Radio Free Mobile, the damage is done.

Mitigation "is unlikely to give Huawei the products it really needs and even if it did, it is quite possible that irreparable damage has already been done to its (its) smartphone business," he said. writes Mr. Windsor.

In addition, by sanctioning the group in the name of national security, Donald Trump paved the way for the hardliners, "whose ultimate goal is not to resolve the trade dispute but to create a world free of telecom equipment Chinese, "said Samm Sacks, subject specialist at the New America think tank, which specializes in technology-related changes.

A possible compromise would be to soften the sanctions on mainstream activities (smartphones and tablets) while maintaining them for telecom infrastructure, she said.

But anyway, an agreement on Huawei would probably not solve the struggle between the two countries that compete for global technological dominance, said Ms. Sacks, noting that "Beijing will not give up its ambitions" in artificial intelligence, connected objects and 5G ...

? 2019 AFP