Another high level US-China meeting.
Another twist in the long-running saga of what
is going to happen to Huawei.
This time, it was Donald Trump meeting Xi Jinping
on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka,
where the two presidents discussed
bringing an end to their long-running trade war.
Investors were pleased to see the warm words the two
men spoke following the meeting, thinking that it might
mean that there will soon be an end to the escalation
in tariffs.
But what really delighted Silicon Valley, in particular,
was what Donald Trump said about Huawei.
He said that American companies would
be allowed to sell to the Chinese telecom's equipment
maker, after all, just weeks after his administration
announced there would be a ban on them doing exactly that.
Since then, however, confusion has reigned
over what the president meant.
His economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was on the television
the very next day saying there will be no blanket
amnesty for American companies, but there
might be a few additional exemptions to the ban granted.
What's clear, talking to people here in Washington,
is that the president didn't necessarily
know exactly what he meant, either.
Mr Trump will meet senior officials over the coming days,
here in DC, to discuss how they might
go about easing restrictions on American companies selling
to Huawei, while not undermining their central argument
that the Chinese company poses a threat to US national security.
Most people in the technology industry
expect that they will eventually be
able to sell consumer goods to Huawei,
but perhaps not items for super-fast 5G
broadband networks.
Good news, perhaps then, for Google
with its Android operating software on Huawei phones,
but less so for Intel and other makers of sophisticated 5G
microchips.