The ban by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers on Huawei employees from reviewing submissions to its journals amid the US-China trade war has sparked outrage in China.
The New York-based scientific society said in an e-mail that it feared “severe legal implications” from continuing to use Huawei scientists as reviewers in vetting technical papers, Science reported. They can continue to serve on IEEE editorial boards, according to the memo, but “cannot handle any papers” until the sanctions are lifted.
Zhang Haixia, professor of School of Electronic and Computer Engineering at Peking University, posted a letter via her research laboratory’s WeChat account, saying she “decided to quit from the IEEE NANO and IEEE JMEMS editorial boards until such time when they restore our common professional integrity.”
“(IEEE’s ban on Huawei reviewers) is way beyond the scope of science and technology which I was trained in and following in my professional career,” Zhang said.
In addition, the Beijing-based China Computer Federation has suspended communications with the publications division of the IEEE one day after IEEE’s action, Global Times reported.