Huawei Turns to Asian Parts Suppliers Amid US Crackdown

On 27 May, Huawei’s founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei told Chinese media that the US crackdown on the tech giant is “not powerful enough” to force other countries to follow suit and place the company on their blacklists.

Huawei is turning to the Asian market, namely South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, to surpass the difficulties the company is facing 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.

Representatives of the Chinese company arrived last Thursday to South Korea to meet executives from Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and LG Display and discuss long-term supply contracts for smartphones parts, Huawei Korea said on Monday.

READ MORE: Samsung Shares Soar as US Bans Technology Transfer to Rival Huawei

The results of the recently introduced US sanctions against Huawei are already showing up, especially on the second-hand market. Thus, British used-phone vendor musicMagpie is selling the company's second-hand P30 Pro model that went on the market a month ago at one-ninth of the price of a new one.

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.