Agencies Split on Whether to Add Honor Device to Entity List, Report Says
Several U.S. national security agencies are split on whether to add Chinese smartphone maker Honor Device to the Entity List, The Washington Post reported Sept. 19. While the Commerce and State departments said Honor shouldn't be added to the list, the Defense and Energy departments last week supported adding the company. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr said Honor should be blacklisted because Huawei, which formerly owned Honor as its smartphone company, is using it to evade U.S. export restrictions. “This isn't a close call,” Carr said in a Sept. 20 tweet. The issue has been “appealed to the political-appointee level” at each of the agencies, the report said, and could be escalated to the Cabinet level and eventually President Joe Biden in the case of a deadlock.
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The disagreements came soon after Republican lawmakers urged the administration to add Honor to the Entity List (see 2108060058). A Commerce Department spokesperson declined to comment on “deliberations” related to Entity List decisions. “BIS and its interagency partners continually review a range of factors, including risk of diversion to parties already on the Entity List, in considering potential revisions to the Entity List,” the spokesperson said Sept. 21. “We remain committed to using a full range of tools, including the use of export controls, to deter efforts by [China] and other countries and entities of concern that seek and leverage technology in ways that risk harming U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.” The State Department referred questions to Commerce. The Energy and Defense departments didn’t comment.