Huawei Pauses Production of Smartphones Amid US Blacklisting - Reports

In late May, Huawei’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei expressed confidence in an interview with Chinese media that the US crackdown on the tech giant would fail to prod other countries to follow suit.

South China Morning Post reported Tuesday that Huawei had paused production of its smartphones as the company is attempting to overcome difficulties after US corporations, such as Google and Microsoft as well as major semiconductor makers, including Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom, cut ties with the Chinese tech giant.

According to the media outlet, the US ban on technology transfer to the Asian company has prevented Huawei from acquiring supplies crucial for international sales, including Intel chips and Google's Android system.

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The recent US decision has made Huawei reassess its ambitions on the international smartphone arena to become the most popular smartphone provider by 2020.

"As the new situation has emerged, it is too early to say whether we are able to achieve the goal", said Zhao Ming, president of one of Huawei's smartphone brands.

On 15 May, Trump issued an executive order, essentially banning Huawei from the US market for purportedly posing a national security risk. Huawei has recently faced allegations that the company is linked to the Chinese government and has spied on its behalf. Although both Huawei and the Chinese government have firmly denied these claims, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States banned Huawei from participating in government contracts in 2018.

Following the sanctions, major US tech giants such as Google and Microsoft severed ties with the Chinese company.