WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Republican U.S.

lawmakers on Friday criticized the Biden administration after

sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a

laptop this week powered by an Intel AI chip.

The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list

in 2019 for violating Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort

to hobble Beijing's technological advances. Placement on the

list means the company's suppliers have to seek a special,

difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it.

One such license, issued by the Trump administration, has

allowed Intel ( INTC ) to ship central processors to Huawei for

use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners had urged the Biden

administration to revoke that license, but many grudgingly

accepted that it would expire later this year and not be

renewed.

Huawei's unveiling Thursday of its first AI-enabled laptop,

the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel's ( INTC ) new Core Ultra 9

processor, shocked and angered them, because it suggested to

them that the Commerce Department had approved shipments of the

new chip to Huawei.

"One of the greatest mysteries in Washington, DC is why the

Department of Commerce continues to allow U.S. technology to be

shipped to Huawei" Republican Congressman Michael Gallagher, who

chairs the House of Representatives select committee on China,

said in a statement to Reuters.

A source familiar with the matter said the chips were

shipped under a preexisting license. They are not covered by

recent broad-cased restrictions on AI chip shipments to China,

the source and another person said.

The Commerce Department and Intel ( INTC ) declined to comment.

Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The reaction is a sign of growing pressure on the Biden

administration to do more to thwart Huawei's rise, nearly five

years after it was added to a trade restriction list.

In August, it shocked the world with a new phone powered

by a sophisticated chip manufactured by sanctioned Chinese

chipmaker SMIC, becoming a symbol of China's technological

resurgence despite Washington's ongoing efforts to cripple its

capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.

At a Senate subcommittee hearing this week, Kevin Kurland,

an export enforcement official, said Washington's restrictions

on Huawei have had a "significant impact" on it access to U.S.

technology. He also stressed that the goal was not necessarily

to stop Huawei from growing but to keep it from misusing U.S.

technology for "malign activities."

But the remarks did little to stem frustration among

Republican China hawks following the news about Huawei's new

laptop.

"These approvals must stop," Republican congressman Michael

McCaul said in a statement to Reuters. "Two years ago, I was

told licenses to Huawei would stop. Today, it doesn't seem as

though the policy has changed."