The situation surrounding Huawei and the US is getting more and more complicated, it seems. According to a report by the Financial Times (via TechCrunch), Huawei has ordered its Chinese employees to bar technical meetings with US contacts. On top of that, the company has sent home American workers who were deployed in its research and development functions (in Shenzhen).
This information comes straight from Dang Wenshuan, Huawei’s Chief Strategy Architect, who spoke to the Financial Times. The company also limited general communications between its Chinese and US workers, until the situation gets resolved, as it seems like Huawei is trying to deal with the situation and avoid breaking the US rules in the process.
Mr. Wenshuan says that Huawei also told its workers that they avoid topics relating to technology when it comes to talking to overseas visitors on the company’s campus. Dang Wenshuan says that Huawei made such measures just to make sure it complies with the law, the rules that the set out, as it seems like Huawei is not really sure of what the limitations are yet.
As most of you know by now, Huawei, along with its affiliates, has been banned by the US Commerce Department over national security concerns, even though the company has been granted a 90-day grace period to continue doing business for its existing products.
As part of the US’ move, Google and a number of other (mostly) US companies followed, creating huge problems for Huawei. President Trump did say that the situation could be resolved in a new trade deal with China, but it remains to be seen what will happen. Google and Huawei are also trying to work out the issue, even though this seems to be above and beyond them at this point.
Huawei is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, it was the world’s second-largest smartphone OEM, and it has been growing for years. The company actually aimed to overthrow Apple in 2020, though that will probably not happen due to the latest issues. Huawei’s sales decreased quite a bit since the situation escalated, at least according to reports.
This is a huge issue for Huawei, as it does not only ban it from selling its phones in the US, which has been a case for a while now, but it also affects its software and hardware. Huawei’s phones are based on Android, and Google was forced to cut ties with Huawei following the ban, which means that, as things stand at the moment, Huawei will have to opt for a different operating system down the road.
Huawei has been developing its own operating system for a while now, and if reports are to be believed, we’ll see it later this year. Still, creating a whole new ecosystem, and getting people to buy their phones even though the support is not near those for Android or iOS, that will be a feat for the company… presuming that the situation does not get resolved soon, and it hopefully will, as that would be best for consumers (extra competition).