Usually, when Donald Trump or a member of his government spews their garbage, talk show hosts and news anchors chat about it for a minute before moving on to the next crazy thing he said or did.

Which is why, when the US tried to convince the rest of the world that China was using Huawei and 5G networks to spy on people, we all shrugged it off as another trade-war-related paranoia.

Except it’s getting very, very real now. The US is cracking down on Chinese technology companies, reports The Verge.

Following the US crackdown on Chinese technology companies, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android license, dealing a huge blow to the besieged phonemaker. Reuters first reported the news, and The Verge subsequently confirmed Google’s suspension of business with Huawei with a source familiar with the matter.

Google claims to be “complying” with the US Commerce Department’s recent decision to place Huawei on the Entity List –  a list of companies that are unable to buy technology from US companies without government approval.

While people who already have Huawei phones will not be immediately impacted by the decision, the effect on any new phones that Huawei produces is as yet unknown.

Huawei is now restricted to using the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), cutting the company off from critical Google apps and services that consumers outside of China expect on Android devices. That also means Huawei will only be able to push security updates for Android once they’re made available in AOSP, assuming the company uses its own update system.

Huawei has issued its first response to the ban in a statement emailed to The Verge.

“Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry.

Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally.

We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.”

Which brings us to South Africa. Unfortunately, what happens between China and America inevitably trickles down to ruin everyone’s day.

Here’s Business Insider with what South African Huawei owners can expect moving forward:

South African Huawei users should not see any impact in how their smartphones work – not immediately anyway.

The latest version of Android is much less likely to come to the Huawei P30, and though safe for now, apps such as Google Maps and YouTube may disappear.

…Because Huawei was a Google partner for all phones currently in use (outside China), security updates were delivered via that partnership – and that can no longer happen.

So things are going to get a little bit worse for Huawei users in the near future.

Now we wait for China to strike back.

[source:verge&verge&businessinsider]