By Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Republican Senators, led by Marco Rubio, called Thursday for the Biden administration’s blacklist Honor. Honor is a former unit at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

Rubio, in a Thursday October 14 letter seen by Reuters described Honor as essentially a “arm” for the Chinese government and granted access to the most valuable U.S. technology that is currently being denied Huawei. They join a growing chorus calling for blacklisting.

Rubio said that Honor had allowed Beijing to “effectively dodge a critical American Export Control” by spinning it off. Rubio’s letter was signed along with Rick Scott and Senator John Cornyn. Huawei sold its Honor smartphone brand, which was lower in price, to a third-party company in November 2020.

“By not responding, the Department of Commerce is at risk of setting a precedent that will be communicated to our adversaries. We lack the ability or willpower necessary to sanction blatant financial manipulation by authoritarian regimes.”

Honor, Commerce, Huawei, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to our requests for comment.

Trump’s trade blacklist in 2019 placed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. It claimed that Huawei posed a security risk to the nation. Huawei disputes this assertion.

Huawei had to be on the so-called entity listing to allow its U.S. suppliers to sell to it key items, such as semiconductors.

Huawei announced in November that it would be selling the Honor smartphone brand, a budget-brand, to over 30 dealers and agents as sanctions began to take effect.

Michael McCaul was the top Republican Congressman and the House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member. He also asked the Commerce Department for Honor to be blacklisted. Honor claimed Honor was created to bypass U.S. Export Controls and allow Huawei to access blocked software and semiconductor chips.