HONG KONG (AP) — A Huawei executive says that recent U.S. sanctions against the company have caused a shortage of computer chips for the company, hurting the growth of its smartphone business.
Richard Yu, president of Huawei Technologies’ consumer business, said at a company conference for developers on Thursday that the company has still managed to gain a 51% market share in the Chinese smartphone industry.
The U.S. has imposed various sanctions on Huawei, citing national security concerns. The latest, ordered in August, restrict foreign semiconductor companes from selling chips to Huawei that are produced using American technology.
“Even after this third blow, we still managed to achieve growth,” said Yu, who acknowledged that growth had been impacted over the last month.
In May, the U.S. barred chipmakers that use U.S. technology and software to design chips from selling to the Shenzhen-based company without a license.
A year earlier, the U.S. government put the company on its trade blacklist, banning Huawei from doing business with U.S. companies after the Trump administration said Huawei was a national security threat.
The U.S. alleges that Huawei could conduct intelligence for the Chinese government and has urged its allies to exclude Huawei from its telecommunications networks. Huawei has vehemently denied these accusations.
This trade blacklist cut Huawei off from suppliers such as Google, which had supplied Huawei smartphones with the Android operating system and Google Mobile Services, such as Gmail and YouTube. Huawei then developed its own Huawei Mobile Services, including an app store, that it has rolled out for newer smartphone models.
Despite the troubles with Washington, in 2019 Huawei shipped over 240 million phones globally, and was the second biggest smartphone maker in the world. In the first half of 2020, the company generated revenues of 434 billion yuan (about $63 billion), up 13.1% from the same period a year earlier.
Yu said the company plans to make its proprietary operating system HarmonyOS available to devices including its smartphones, some of which still operate on the Android system. Earlier, the company had said HarmonyOS was meant for devices such as smartwatches and TVs, among others.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.