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Huawei CEO sings 'Bye, bye, mister American Pai', trims US C-suite

The best thing about beating your head against a brick wall? It feels great when you stop

Huawei has acknowledged the US market may be a lost cause, at least for now.

The Federal Communications Commission this week took a vote that effectively prohibited Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE from the US market: US carriers that receive federal broadband funds aren't allowed to spend that money with vendors deemed a national security risk.

According to Fierce Wireless, Eric Xu, one of Huawei's three rotating CEOs, acknowledged the company is effectively blocked from the US market, adding “with some things, when you let them go, you actually feel more at ease.”

The Register has asked Huawei for confirmation of the remarks.

The ban, which also covers ZTE, was put forward by FCC chairman Ajit Pai last month. The rule doesn't name Huawei or ZTE, but Pai separately wrote to Congress in March saying he shared lawmakers' concerns about Huawei's potential threat to national security.

Reuters reported that Huawei also laid off five executives in the US last week, including external affairs vice president Bill Plummer, a claim also reported by the New York Times.

ZTE is already suffering under a seven-year ban that prevents US companies supplying it, following a Department of Commerce finding that it had violated its March 2017 settlement over trade law violations.

That ban obviously means the likes of Qualcomm and Acacia must cease any dealings with ZTE, which will shrink its potential supplier list for many of the components it requires. Google's Android operating system may be another casualty of the ban. ®

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