Sanctions play a crucial role in the United States’ tech and trade conflict with China. They prevent Chinese companies from acquiring advanced U.S. technologies and entering the U.S. market. Huawei—the world’s largest telecommunications firm—is among the most targeted Chinese firms due to concerns that it assists the Chinese Communist Party spy on the United States (and its allies). While sanctions against Huawei are justifiable, the Biden administration needs to ensure that these sanctions don’t inadvertently harm other U.S. technological and economic interests. The 2019 U.S. sanctions against Huawei had unintended consequences on the open technical standards system, underpinning America’s position as a global tech leader. Notably, the sanctions fractured the standard to measure and compare the energy efficiency of data center servers. China created its own duplicative and objectively worse standard. Not only must firms use this standard in China, but China is also advocating that others, such as the European Union, use its standard here as well. The Biden administration eventually addressed these sanctions’ impact on standards activities, but the damage was done. The case highlights why the Biden administration should take a nuanced approach to addressing national security issues that involve technical standards.