Huawei chief vows to strengthen supply chain amid restrictions from US

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has said that it would do everything possible to safeguard its supply chain, which had been attacked in the recent past, mainly because of restrictions imposed by the United States government. According to Bloomberg, Huawei's rotating chairman Guo Ping, while speaking at an event in Shanghai on September 23, said that the company will do everything to "strengthen" its supply chain from the "attack" it has been facing, without mentioning the United States. 

Read: Trump Administration Imposes New Huawei Restrictions

US restrictions on Huawei

A company executive earlier this month had said that the US sanctions have caused a shortage of chips. Experts believe that it will run out of them by next year. The chips are an important component in manufacturing mobile phones and tablets. Washington last month prohibited 38 entities from receiving certain sensitive technologies aimed at barring Huawei from alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf (OTS) chips produced with tools acquired from the US.

Read: China Says US Damaging Global Trade With Huawei Sanctions

Trump administration sees Huawei as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state. The US government in the past has imposed various sanctions on the company in order to prevent it from doing business in the country. The US has been constantly lobbying in ally nations to prevent Huawei from setting up 5G network bases in their countries, including the United Kingdom and the European Union. 

Read: US Sanctions On Huawei Hit Chip Supply And Growth, Exec Says

Earlier, the US Department of Justice had indicted Huawei for stealing US technology, conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, racketeering, and helping Iran to evade sanctions, amongst other charges. Meanwhile, Huawei has been taking its own measures to prevent itself from being hampered by the restrictions. Huawei cut about 600 jobs in the US last year and announced that it was moving its research centre to Canada. 

Huawei also unveiled its latest operating system Harmony OS, which it hopes will replace Android from its devices after Google was barred from providing updates to the company. 

Read: Pompeo Announces Measures To Restrict China's Huawei From Acquiring US Technology

(Image Credit: AP)