Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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In Rare Move, US Clears Limited Cooperation Between US Firms, Huawei

John Xie

   In a rare twist to Washington's long-standing restrictions on the
   Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Commerce Department recently reversed
   its ban preventing U.S. firms from working with Huawei on developing
   new technical standards.

   The move was seen by many in China as an admission by President Donald
   Trump's administration that it cannot ignore Huawei's influential role
   in developing the technical standards critical for future technologies.

   "America finally bowed its head" read a headline by Chinese network
   Phoenix TV.

   The new rule, announced by the Commerce Department on June 15, amends
   the Huawei "entity listing," to allow American companies to collaborate
   with Huawei on setting standards that will determine the technical
   rules of the road for 5G and other emerging technologies.

   "This action is meant to ensure Huawei's placement on the entity list
   in May 2019 does not prevent American companies from contributing to
   important standards-developing activities despite Huawei's pervasive
   participation in standards-development organizations," the department
   said.

   The situation with Huawei is no accident. For years, Beijing has
   focused on joining international standard-setting bodies, such as 3GPP
   and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which are
   little-known among the public, but make some of the most consequential
   decisions in modern telecommunications.
   3GPP and the future of your smartphone
   Nestled in a quiet industrial park in southern France, a technology
   consortium with esoteric name, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project,
   or 3GPP, sets the technical standards behind the world's communication
   platforms, the fundamental building blocks for product development. As
   the primary global standard setting organization for the last 20 years,
   3GPP helped create technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth as well as
   today's 5G high-speed networks.
   "Standards are not very sexy but extremely important," Andrew Polk,
   partner at Beijing-based research and consultancy firm Trivium China,
   told VOA. "And it takes sustained long-term effort and attention. While
   western companies try to set standards, China has a long-term
   coordinated game plan to influence standards," he said.

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