Secretary of State Pompeo imposes visa restrictions on Huawei, other Chinese tech companies, citing human rights abuses

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US will impose visa restrictions on Chinese technology firms, the latest move expected to strain relations between Washington and Beijing. “State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese tech companies like Huawei, that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally,” Sec Pompeo said. The secretary of State described Huawei as “an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China.” He accused certain employees of the company of providing “material support to the Chinese Communist Party regime that commits human rights abuses,” but he didn’t offer specifics on the employees. “Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers,” the nation’s top diplomat said.