Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies saw a 24 percent year-on-year spike in revenues in the first nine months of 2019, despite US president Donald Trump's efforts to block the company from growing its business, the company reported on Wednesday.
Revenues were are 610.8bn yuan (£67.1bn) from January to September, with global smartphone shipments increasing 26 percent, or over 185m units, in the same period.
The tech behemoth also sped up commercial deployments of its 5G networks globally, the company said, adding that over 60 commercial contracts for 5G have been signed with global carriers, as well as shipping over 400,000 5G massive MIMO active antenna units (AAUs) and a further 150,000 5G base stations worldwide.
— Huawei (@Huawei) October 16, 2019
Over "700 cities, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies, and 58 Fortune Global 100 companies" had chosen Huawei as their partner for digital transformation by the end of Q3 2019, according to the press release.
The news comes after Washington's trade war with Beijing intensified, with US officials placed Huawei, ZTE and roughly 70 other Chinese firms on an entities list in May and accused them of working with the Chinese government to spy on clients via backdoor technologies in its IT systems, sparking condemnation from Beijing.
Countries Stand With Huawei Amid US-China Trade War
Despite pressure from Washington to cull 5G trials with Huawei, countries around the world have continued supporting the Chinese firm's efforts to build their national networks.
New Delhi has not yet taken a position on whether it will ban Huawei from joining 5G tests and has been engaging with Chinese officials to clarify the Chinese firm's position on 5G, according to Huawei India CEO Jay Chen.
Other countries have ignored President Trump's threats to stop sharing intelligence if Huawei was allowed to build their 5G networks, with Germany omitting a clause in its draft version of new telecoms security measures banning it from building Germany's 5G infrastructure, according to Handelsblatt newspaper, which instead allows 5G network components to be sourced from "trusted suppliers" only, following pressure from the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The developments comes after Huawei founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, said in October that despite temporary problems over access to Google services, the company would thrive in the long term.
— HuaweiUSA (@HuaweiUSA) October 16, 2019
He told the Associated Press at the time: “When the entity list came out, they hoped Huawei would die. Not only did Huawei not die, it is doing even better.
He also added that Android users could switch to Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system 'within days' should US companies shutter the Chinese tech giant from its services. The new OS could also catch up to Apple's macOS system in two to three year's time, the CEO said on Tuesday.
Tensions between the two sides have eased after the White House granted export licences allowing US businesses to supply some components and materials just before talks between the two countries were set to take place in DC on Monday and Tuesday last week, according to the New York Times, but other reports revealed that Chinese deputy-level talks did not lead to progress on major issues.
Huawei and the Chinese government have slammed all US allegations as false, with many other European countries following suit. The UK has considered allowing the Chinese firm to build non-critical components in its IT infrastructure and France has vowed to continue working with Huawei on its own 5G networks. But Australia, Japan, New Zealand and others have denied Huawei the opportunity to build their 5G networks, in line with Washington's requests.
