(Yicai Global) June 3 -- The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has ended a restriction that stopped staff of China's Huawei Technologies from peer-reviewing the US association's publications.

The reversal comes after the IEEE received clarification from the Department of Commerce to an enquiry about how the US government's decision to limit Huawei's access to American technology would affect its publications, the institute said on its website yesterday.

The restrictive approach that was applied on May 30 was solely motivated by the IEEE's desire to protect its members from legal risks, it said. Founded in 1963, the IEEE has 430,000 members in more than 160 countries and regions and provides access to over 4.8 million publications on its platform IEEE Xplore.

On May 16, the Department of Commerce added Huawei to a list of companies that will need to obtain a special permit to buy US technologies, intensifying the trade tiff between the world's two largest economies.

The China Association for Science and Technology and 10 industry associations released a statement yesterday, condemning the IEEE's ban on Huawei employees and urging scientists and institutions worldwide to defend the international standards of academic exchange and the non-political basis of scientific research.

Editor: Emmi Laine