Russian President Vladimir Putin said US efforts to push Chinese tech giant Huawei out of the global market might be a sign that a new technological war is coming.

“Take the situation around the company Huawei, for example. There are attempts not even to challenge it, but to brazenly force it out of the global market,” Putin told the audience at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday. “In some circles it is even called the first technological war of the coming digital era.”

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Washington has long criticized Huawei and another Chinese tech company, ZTE, over alleged links to the Chinese government. In May, when the trade war between Washington and Beijing escalated, the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei, citing national security concerns.

Putin added that attempts to monopolize a new technological wave by some countries impede solving the global inequality problem and will lead to destabilization.

Despite Huawei's repeated denials of the accusations by Washington, leading global tech companies such as Google, Intel, and Qualcomm, started cutting their ties with the Chinese firm to comply with the US ban. Huawei has already filed a motion in a US court to overturn the ban on its products, saying that it was targeted in “violation of due process.”

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Washington's crusade against the Chinese firm comes as the world's two biggest economies are embroiled in a simmering trade row, which has resulted in tit-for-tat tariffs on billions worth of imports. The latest escalation saw the US raising tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China hitting back with up to 25 percent tariffs on 5,000 US products worth $60 billion.

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