The US has significantly intensified its efforts to thwart China and Huawei’s 5G dream while dramatically raising the heat in the trade war.

President Trump finally signed the long-rumored executive order that will block purchases of Huawei equipment in the US but the move with far more serious implications for Huawei is the addition of Huawei to the Department of Commerce’s “Entity List”. The US government will soon require any American firms selling to Huawei to get a license, and if the US decides not to grant licenses for key technology components Huawei’s business globally could be severely damaged. It may not be quite as bad as the ZTE death sentence last year but it looks close.

Perhaps Trump has no intention of implementing these new controls any time soon and instead is using them as another lever to get China to agree to the trade deal terms. Perhaps General Secretary Xi will give Trump a call and work out a reprieve. We will find out soon enough I guess, though the mood in …