Photo: ANP
Chinese technology company Huawei is burdened with US sanctions. Recently, the company has seen its sales continue to decline. Sales of Huawei’s consumer arm nearly halved in the first half of 2021.
The United States has banned the use of Huawei technology in communications and networking equipment, among other things. Huawei has long been accused of espionage by the United States. The company itself has vehemently denied this claim. Sanctions cause great harm to the company. Previously, the company competed with tech companies Apple and Samsung in the smartphone space and with Ericsson, among others, in rolling out 5G networks.
Then there is also a legal battle over whether or not to extradite CFO Meng Wanzhou to the United States. This process will resume this month. Meng was arrested in late 2018 while traveling at the Vancouver airport. She is a vice president of Huawei and the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei. Huawei is suspected of violating US sanctions against Iran and the US has requested its extradition.
As a result of the sanctions, which mainly hinder the smartphone division and advance the chip division, Huawei is increasingly focusing on other areas. This includes electric cars, solar parks, and cloud software.
“These have been difficult times,” said Eric Shaw, the current president of Huawei. “Our goal is to survive, and to do so in the future.” Huawei’s sales fell for the third consecutive quarter. In the last quarter, there was a sharp drop of 38 percent year-on-year to 168 billion yuan, or 22 billion euros. This contraction follows a decline in business volume of 17 percent and 11 percent in the previous two quarters. However, Huawei recorded a net profit of 4.1 billion euros in the past six months.
