According to a Bloomberg report and US federal filing data, Huawei Technologies may have slowed its costly lobbying efforts in Washington, as the company is spearheading Chinese efforts to decouple its reliance on the US.
The Biden Administration has repeatedly reiterated that it is not seeking to disengage with China, but only de-risking. From prioritizing procurements from local products to subsidizing a domestic semiconductor supply chain, China seems to be taking the initiative to disengage with the US.
Bloomberg reported that Huawei Technologies stopped hiring two lobbyists, Jeff Hogg and Donald Morrissey. Meanwhile, data from OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign contributions and lobbying data in the US, shows that Huawei Technologies reduced the lobbyists it hired from 12 in 2022 to six in the first three quarters of 2023.
According to OpenSecrets, Huawei Technologies began its lobbying efforts in the US in 2009, with only a two-quarter gap in the first half of 2010. Huawei's lobbying spending peaked in 2021 and 2022, reaching US$3.59 million and US$3.156 million, respectively. However, its lobbying spending has been falling quarter by quarter until the third quarter. The fourth-quarter data is not available for now on OpenSecrets.org.
Huawei's falling spending on lobbying and a reduction in lobbyist hiring may imply a policy change concerning its intention to influence policy-making in Washinton. Bloomberg reported that Huawei reduced its staff in the US. The report quoted Chris Pereira, founder of iMpact, saying that Huawei had little reason to keep burning cash in lobbying in Washington, as the US market isn't likely to be a place for a breakthrough for Huawei soon.
Meanwhile, ahead of a presidential election in the US, semiconductor firms and associations saw slowing efforts in lobbying in the US. Lobbying spending by global semiconductor companies and associations dropped from US$53.939 million in 2022 to US$38.053 million in the first quarter of 2023. However, it is to be noted that lobbying spending in the US from semiconductor firms and associations has remained historically high since 2021, as the US government keeps urging onshoring of semiconductor manufacturing capacities on its soil and imposed export restrictions on advanced semiconductor technologies against certain countries and destinations.
Source: OpenSecrets.org, January 2024
Source: OpenSecrets.org, January 2024
Credit: AFP
