Huawei plans extensive layoffs at US operation: Report

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is planning extensive layoffs in the United States as the Chinese telecoms equipment company grapples with its US blacklisting, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The layoffs are expected to affect jobs at Huawei‘s US-based research and development subsidiary Futurewei Technologies, which employs about 850 people in research labs across the country, the Journal said.

One person told the newspaper the layoffs could be in the hundreds, though an exact number was not provided. Huawei‘s Chinese employees in the US were being given an option to return home and stay with the company, another person said.

Some employees have already been notified of their dismissal, while more planned job cuts could be announced soon, the Journal said.

Huawei declined to comment to the newspaper.

After the Commerce Department decided to put Huawei on its so-called “entity list”, Futurewei employees have faced restrictions in communicating with their colleagues in Huawei‘s home offices located in China, people told the Journal.

Last month, US President Donald Trump said at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, that he would allow some US tech sales to Huawei to resume but that the company will stay on the entity list until the conclusion of talks between Washington and Beijing to resolve their ongoing trade war.

On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US government would issue licenses to companies seeking to sell goods to Huawei where there is no threat to national security.

On Friday, Huawei Chairman Howard Liang said the company had yet to see any benefit from Trump’s partial lifting of the ban and called on Washington to remove the company from the entity list.

US officials say Huawei gear poses a security risk because the company conducts espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. Huawei denies those charges and insists it is an independent firm.