The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, announced Wednesday that, at least temporarily, it will no longer work with Huawei or ZTE “due to federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions.”
Lester and Zuber said “special attention will be paid to risks related to intellectual property, export controls, data security and access, economic competitiveness, national security and political, civil and human rights, as well as potential impacts on the MIT community, consistency with MIT’s core values and alignment with MIT’s academic mission.”
The process involves three phases. The first one is a compliance review with MIT’s International Coordination Committee, the second is an academic review by the International Advisory Committee and the third is a project risk review by the Senior Risk Group. More details about each phase can be found in the note announcing this new process.
Huawei and ZTE appear to be the first casualties of this process. Both face increasing scrutiny from the U.S., which banned federal agencies from purchasing their equipment and could extend the ban to wireless networks.
Huawei claimed this ban is unconstitutional, but with the U.S. also charging the company with skirting sanctions on Iran, the company’s standing doesn’t seem likely to improve.
Other countries have scrutinized Huawei’s products, too, and several have at least considered a ban of the company’s equipment from their wireless networks. Now, it’s losing research partners, too.
