Despite his company having been slapped about by trade bans and sanctions from the US, Ren Zhangfei, CEO of Huawei, has said that he has no intention of ceasing trade with US suppliers for components.
Zhangfei says that his company has procured at least US$18.7 billion (~RM81.5 billion) in parts and components from US suppliers in 2019, up from US$11 billion (~RM48 billion) from previous years. This is despite the fact that the brand’s current flagship devices, the Mate 30 series and P40 series, have been assembled with components that aren’t made in the US.
Huawei was placed on the US’ entity list back in May 2019, after the latter’s Trump administration signed an executive order against China, but was clearly aimed at Huawei and its 5G telecommunications equipment. Perhaps the biggest blow to the company’s global mobile market was the prohibition of Google Mobile Services (GMS); an act that effectively forced it to develop its own operating system, HarmonyOS.
Zhengfei also said in jest that surpassing either Android or Apple OS with its HarmonyOS would be an uphill climb and would take a “long period of time, but no more than 300 years”.
Of course, it also doesn’t help Huawei that the disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is clearly racking the cost, but to be fair, this is a global health issue and that it’s simply just one of many companies being affected.
(Source: SCMP)
