On 14 July 2020, the UK Government announced that Huawei would be banned from supplying new equipment for UK 5G networks from 31 December 2020, and that all existing Huawei equipment will be removed from the UK’s 5G networks by the end of 2027. The decision was taken in a meeting of the UK National Security Council (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It follows new advice provided by the National Cyber Security Centre…
On July 14, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act (“HKAA”) providing for the imposition of sanctions on foreign persons who materially contribute to the undermining of Hong Kong’s autonomy by the Government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and foreign financial institutions who engage in significant transactions with such foreign persons. During a press conference announcing the signing of the HKAA, President Trump also indicated that he had signed…
On July 1, 2020, the US Department of State, jointly with the US Department of Treasury, the US Department of Commerce, and the US Department of Homeland Security, issued an advisory (the “Advisory”) to caution US businesses about the risks of supply chain links to entities that allegedly engage in human rights abuses including the forced labor of Uyghurs, ethnic Kyrgyz, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim minority groups, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Xinjiang”)…
The US Administration has taken a series of actions in recent days to tighten US export controls for Hong Kong and to sanction Chinese government officials in response to the decision of the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) to impose a new national security law for Hong Kong. Most significantly, these actions put Hong Kong on a par with China with respect to license exception eligibility under the US Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) by suspending all…