The US puts Huawei on BIS List forcing IEEE to ban Huawei employees from peer-reviewing or editing research papers

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Update: In the wake of the backlash received by the academic community, IEEE had requested clarification from the U.S. Department of Commerce on the applicability of these export control restrictions to IEEE’s publication activities. On 2nd June, they released an updated statement stating that all “employees of Huawei and its affiliates may participate as peer reviewers and editors in our publication process. All IEEE members, regardless of employer, can continue to participate in all of the activities of the IEEE.”

Adding fuel to the already raging US-China tech war, the US government has ‘forced’ the IEEE committee to stop Huawei employees from peer-reviewing or editing research papers. This is indeed a black day for academic progress and research, startling scientists and academicians all over the world.

On 16th May, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) took action against Huawei and over 60 of its affiliates adding them to BIS “Entity List” found in Supplement No. 4 to the EAR (U.S. Export Administration Regulations) Part 744. The BIS Entity List is a list of certain foreign entities, including businesses, research institutions, government and private organizations, and individuals (Listed Persons), that are subject to specific license requirements for the export, re-export, and in-country transfer of certain items subject to the EAR.

Yesterday, IEEE released a detailed statement stating that IEEE (as a corporation organized in New York State) must comply with its legal obligations under the laws of the United States and other jurisdictions. Following the EAR, the IEEE has provided a detailed guide to IEEE volunteers, members, and staff on interacting with a Listed Person or an employee of a Listed Person who seeks to participate in IEEE activities.

They have restricted Huawei from receiving or accessing materials submitted by other persons for publication until after IEEE has accepted the material for publication in accordance with IEEE’s normal publication process. Once the material has been accepted for publication, Huawei may act as editor or peer reviewer for that material. In effect, they are banned from seeing anything that is not already public or earmarked to become public.
Huawei can also not participate in nonpublic meetings or communications that involve technical discussions.
Huawei may continue to use an @ieee.org email account, but IEEE members are cautioned that their own communications of technical information to such addresses (or to any other email addresses of a Listed Person) may be subject to the EAR.

Huawei has joined 177 standards organizations and open source organizations and has held 183 key positions, serving on the board of directors of IEEE-SA, ETSI, WFA, and other organizations. Huawei also has a number of researchers in the IEEE holding positions such as editor-in-chief and deputy editor. Dr. Xiang Liu, a senior expert of the optical network at the Huawei Institute of Aesthetics, is the deputy editor of The Optical Society of America and Optics Express, and the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Optical Communications. To promote the IEEE smart city standard process, Huawei successfully held the IEEE P2413 working group meeting in Shenzhen at the end of this January.

This news did not go down well with academicians and researchers who appealed IEEE to not go ahead with the ban. “Standards bodies, industry associations are like multi-country organizations”, said a Hacker News user. “No single country should be able to prevent others from participating in such organizations”. IEEE’s ban has also ignited a backlash from its Chinese members and scientists, resulting in calls to boycott the organization describing the move as “anti-science” and “violating academic freedom”.

Professor Haixia Zhang from Peking University sent out a letter announcing his resignation from the IEEE. In his letter, Zhang said:

“As an old friend and senior IEEE member, I am really shocked to hear that IEEE is involved in ‘US-Huawei Ban’ for replacing all reviewers from Huawei, which is far beyond the basic line of Science and Technology which I was trained and am following in my professional career till now. As a professor, I AM NOT accept this. Therefore, I decided to quit from the IEEE NANO and IEEE JEMS editorial board until one day it comes back to our common professional integrity.”

A London-based academic also sent a letter to Professor Toshio Fukuda, president of the IEEE.

If this is true, I strongly appeal to IEEE not to launch this ban. As per my understanding, IEEE is a pure academic organization, which should stay out of any political disputes. Additionally, please note that Huawei has funded a large number of IEEE conferences, journal papers, and other events. As far as I know, Huawei has not done any harm to the IEEE. Instead, IEEE has received a considerable amount of funding from Huawei. There is no reason for the IEEE to ban Huawei employees.

He also quoted Article 8 of the IEEE code of ethics which states that:

“We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members, and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree to treat fairly all persons and to not engage in acts of discrimination based on race, religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”

Others also chastised Trump’s administration and ridiculed the IEEE’s ban. Here are some comments from Hacker News:

“This is just ridiculous. This goes way beyond what they originally intended with stopping suspected IP Theft or backdoors by Huawei. This is a black day for academic progress and research in general.”

“If the US intends to rile up the Chinese population for decades to come, well I guess they’re on a good path. Unbelievable.”

“IEEE is just for the US, not for humanity. It should be a shame of that VISION—”IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.”

“Shame. And if you google “IEEE Huawei”, you can still find news like “celebrating the release of new standard co-operated by Huawei and IEEE” on the first page. Now their version should be changed to “IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization(under the guise of U.S. gov) dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of the U.S.” In the past, even physical war accelerates the development of tech(most for weapons though some could be utilized to daily life), and now politics are forcing tech to go reverse. Wonderful.”

The issue between Huawei and IEEE has come amid a raging tech war between the US and China, which recently escalated when the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei over threat to national security. Huawei’s woes continued as Google also suspended all business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services. Huawei will also be limited from getting updates to Google’s Android operating system. Moreover, number of wireless operators are ditching Huawei’s handsets. BT Group Plc won’t offer phones from Huawei when it starts Britain’s first 5G mobile network. According to a leaked memo received by BBC, UK-based chip designer ARM has told staff it must suspend business with Huawei.