According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, there is no proof that Chinese company Huawei can mass-produce smartphones with cutting-edge technology.

Recently, Huawei began selling the Mate 60 Pro phone, which features a processor said to have been created using a technological advancement by the Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC).

“We don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture seven-nanometer (chips) at scale,” Raimondo said at a U.S. House hearing, referencing an advanced chip.

In 2019, the U.S. restricted Huawei’s use of specific chip-making techniques, labelling the business a security concern, a claim the company rejects. Because of the potential for snooping on American telecommunications networks, the U.S. government has stated that Huawei offers “unacceptable” national security concerns.

This month, the Commerce Department announced that it was trying to learn more “on the character and composition” of the chip that might be in violation of trade prohibitions since they claimed it had to be produced using American technology.

Raimondo expressed her anger over the advanced Huawei smartphone report during a session of the House Science Committee.

Republicans contend that Huawei and SMIC should no longer receive any technology exports from the Commerce Department.

Earlier this week, the heads of the House Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services, and select China committees requested the Commerce Department to stop approving licences for Huawei and SMIC, saying that doing so would need increased American pressure “and more effective export controls on our adversaries.”

Regarding if she was thinking about terminating all licences for Huawei, Raimondo declined to comment after the hearing.

At the hearing, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa claimed that Raimondo was in China when the new Huawei phone was unveiled.

“You were bushwhacked to say the least by the launch of a 5G phone,” Issa said.

The U.S. government is attempting to learn more about the Huawei chip, according to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Apparently forbidding some Chinese government officials from using Apple’s iPhones, Raimondo also told reporters, was “concerning.”

(Adapted from TechCrunch.com)