Back in 2012, a draft report from the U.S.House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee branded Huawei and ZTE as threats to national security. Rumors that Huawei was spying on U.S. consumers and corporations by placing special equipment in its phones and networking equipment were constantly met by denials from Huawei. In 2019, Huawei was added to the Entity List.
Huawei is placed on the Entity List forcing it to build its own operating system
The Entity List is kept by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and requires that U.S. companies obtain a license from the U.S. government before they are allowed to export any "U.S.-origin" technology to a company on the Entity List. Essentially, the action prevented Huawei from accessing its U.S.-based supply chain, including Google. As a result, Huawei could no longer use Google's proprietary version of Android, although it obviously could pre-install the open-source version of Android on its handsets.
Huawei was able to develop its own HarmonyOS operating system. | Image credit-Huawei
The open-source version of Android does not offer the Play Store, nor does it come with the default Android apps developed by Google.
Exactly one year to the day after being placed on the Entity List, the U.S. Commerce Department amended the Foreign-Produced Direct Product Rule, allowing it to cut off Huawei from obtaining any cutting-edge chips produced by a foundry using American-made equipment to manufacture them. Many predicted the demise of Huawei due to the U.S. sanctions, and the company, which shipped the most smartphones worldwide during the second quarter of 2020 (topping Apple and Samsung), started to show a decline during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Huawei had to make some changes, or else those predictions of the company's demise would come true. As Tao Jingwen, president of the company's quality, business process, and information technology, said at an event on Wednesday in Guiyang, Huawei "built an ecosystem entirely independent of the United States." The first thing it did was to create the HarmonyOS operating system, which includes the company's App Gallery app store.
Huawei stuns the industry by introducing the Mate 60 Pro, powered by the 7nm Kirin 9000S with 5G support
By 2021, with the launch of its own Huawei Mobile Services ecosystem, it seemed that Huawei didn't appear to be missing Google that much. But outside of China, especially in Europe, the loss of Google still had a large impact on the manufacturer. Additionally, the company needed to access 5G chips somehow. Once Huawei cleaned out its inventory of its 5G Kirin application processors (AP), U.S. chip designer Qualcomm received a license from the U.S. Commerce Department allowing it to ship APs to Huawei. But these chips were tweaked to work with 4G signals and not 5G.
Did Huawei beat the United States?
Yes. Huawei managed to thrive despite the sanctions.
71.43%
No. Huawei is still impacted by U.S. sanctions.
14.29%
Both Huawei and the U.S. are victors.
7.14%
No one won.
7.14%
But once again, Huawei was able to find a way around the sanctions. It stunned the industry in August 2023 when it unveiled the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. That's because, for the first time since 2020, a Huawei flagship phone was powered by an AP designed by Huawei, the Kirin 9000S. The chipset, built by China's largest foundry SMIC using its 7nm process node, brought 5G support back to a Huawei flagship phone for the first time since 2020's Mate 40 series.
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Tao said that the Chinese tech industry's commitment to becoming self-reliance, largely learned through Huawei's ability to thrive without its U.S. suppliers, will allow China to "surpass the U.S. in terms of artificial intelligence applications" on the back of the country’s "extensive economy and business scenarios." As for Huawei, the company continues to push back against efforts from the U.S. to grab more control as the Chinese manufacturer keeps working to get back to the top of the smartphone shipment charts where it stood during Q2 2020 before the full effects of the U.S. sanctions impacted Huawei.
"Iconic Phones" is coming this Fall!
Good news everyone! Over the past year we've been working on an exciting passion project of ours and we're thrilled to announce it will be ready to release in just a few short months.
"Iconic Phones: Revolution at Your Fingertips" is a must-have coffee table book for every tech-head that will bring you on a journey to relive the greatest technological revolution of the 21st century. For more details, simply follow the link below!
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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