China quietly holds meetings with tech giants to talk consequences of Trump’s ban

The Chinese government rallied big tech companies to detail what severe consequences they could face if they side with U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban.

The list of tech giants included Microsoft and Dell from the U.S. and South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and U.K.’s ARM, the New York Times reported.

In May, Trump signed an executive order and placed several companies on an Entity List, including Huawei. The order prohibits any U.S. company from doing business with foreign companies that pose a national security threat.

Following the ban, Google and several other companies, as well as Britain’s ARM, pulled its business from Shenzhen, China-based Huawei.

Citing anonymous sources, the New York Times noted that the meetings came was held on Tuesday and Wednesday last week and came shortly after reports suggested the country would be creating its own blacklist, a move considered to be a form of countering Trump.

According to the New York Times, the meetings were hosted by China’s central economic planning agency, the National Development Reform Commission. It added that representatives from China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology were in attendance at the meeting.

While Huawei was not specifically mentioned, the government bodies suggested “a high level of coordination and likely approval from the very top of China’s opaque leadership structure.”

The two sources said the meetings involved officials warning the companies that should production be pulled from China, it “could lead to punishment” and that the warnings were also an “attempt to forestall a fast breakup of the sophisticated supply chains that connect China’s economy to the rest of the world.”

Source: The New York Times