Company that exported hard drives to China's Huawei fined $300 million

The US has fined technology company Seagate $300 million for violating export controls by selling hard disk drives to Chinese tech giant Huawei. According to the BBC, the US Department of Commerce reported that Seagate Technology shipped more than $1.1 billion worth of goods to Huawei after export controls were imposed in 2020. Seagate will pay the $300 million fine in installments of $15 million every three months for five years. The penalty, which comes as the US has been trying to block exports of technological products such as advanced computer chips to China, is the latest move by Washington to stop the sale of advanced technology to Beijing. Many countries have banned Chinese tech companies Huawei was placed on a trade restriction list in 2019 as part of US efforts to reduce sales of American goods to the company due to national security and foreign policy concerns. The US believes the technology could be used by the Chinese military to support human rights abuses or threaten US national security. China denies the allegations. In recent years, many countries outside the US have taken various measures against Chinese technology companies due to security concerns. Companies specializing in 5G technology such as Huawei, ZTE and Hytera have been banned from installing equipment in networks in the US, Australia, Japan, India and Canada, while the UK has demanded that equipment installed by Huawei be removed from its 5G networks by 2027.