Donald Trump surprised a lot of people when he promised Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would let U.S. companies to sell to Huawei. It seems the Commerce Department was also taken aback, and has now been instructed to just ignore what the president said. According to Reuters, a senior U.S. official told the Commerce Department’s enforcement staff that Huawei should still be treated as blacklisted—despite Trump's promise. The company was added a list in May which banned American firms from selling to it without special permission. Trump’s announcement at the G20 summit led to great confusion in the tech industry and and world governments. John Sonderman, Deputy Director of the Office of Export Enforcement, told staff Monday that Huawei was still on the so-called Entity List.
