It’s just like old times. I lost count of the number of Trump versus Huawei stories I covered in the early days of the U.S. versus China tech war. I think Huawei had me on speed dial to comment on the coverage. The last few years have been quiet, as TikTok and now DeepSeek have taken the baton. But just as Trump returns, the latest update from Huawei is perfectly timed. They’re back and more a threat than ever.
Huawei chairman Liang Hua‘s update, as reported by Reuters, celebrated “the tech company’s annual revenue exceeding 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) last year, as it continued to shake off the impact of U.S. sanctions and its consumer business returned to growth.” This Chinese company’s “annual revenue of 860 billion yuan would mark 22% year-on-year-growth from 2023, when Huawei reported 704.2 billion yuan in revenue. The company also reported its fastest growth in four years that year.”
But that doesn’t really cover the whole story. Huawei was heavily damaged during Trump Part 1. The company described it as a fight for survival and repairing an airplane’s wings mid-flight. It almost dropped out of sight, as it was denied access to U.S. chipset technology and even Google’s Android OS, and saw 5G deals collapse around the world. Huawei is back, yes, but it’s also changed beyond recognition.
As I reported in 2020, Huawei — under the guise of China’s intent to make itself independent of U.S. tech control — removed U.S. firmware and processing hardware from its phones. The result is a fully Chinese smartphone line-up that now threatens Android’s global dominance and has toppled Apple in its key Chinese market. If that’s not worrying enough, the company has also been instrumental in helping the newest Chinese tech champion — DeepSeek — give Silicon Valley a bloody nose.
What has not changed is Huawei’s importance to China’s government and its tech industry. All the talk of TikTok and the hype around its ban and influence on America’s youth has been a distraction. Beyond PR and political jostling, China has never cared much for ByteDance and TikTok. It’s an irrelevance. Huawei remains number one.
I warned during the early skirmishes that the west needed to be careful what it wished for, that an independent Huawei would be more dangerous to the U.S. and the Apple/Google smartphone duopoly that remains under its control. And here we are.
What happens next will be fascinating. Huawei’s latest set of results is a statement of intent rather than a celebration of what’s been and gone. China plays the long-game. And ultimately it has waited this out and has come back stronger than before.
China’s state-backed media teased yesterday, through comments from a government official, “from Huawei, TikTok, to Deepseek – how many more bans will U.S. impose?” With China, there are no coincidences — and so all eyes back on the U.S.
