Pompeo says US to impose visa curbs on Huawei over rights

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States would impose visa restrictions on Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which he accused of facilitating human right violations.

Pompeo also said telecommunications companies around the world "should consider themselves on notice" that if they do business with Huawei, "they are doing business with human rights abusers."

Pompeo told a news conference the State Department would "impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally."

Pompeo also said that "faster is always better" in terms of getting Huawei out of telecoms infrastructure when asked about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's order that Huawei equipment be purged completely from Britain's 5G network by the end of 2027.

In a separate statement referring to alleged abuses against China's minority Muslim population, Pompeo charged that Huawei was "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."

"Certain Huawei employees provide material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses," the statement said.

Huawei denies it spies for China and says the United States wants to frustrate its growth because no US company offers the same technology at a competitive price.

Asked about Pompeo's remarks, a Huawei spokeswoman said, "We are looking into this and will share the statement once we have one."