Chinese telecom giant Huawei will grant a mammoth bonus to its employees for their efforts in resisting US pressure, Asian media reports.
According to an internal memo seen by the Nikkei Asian Review, the company, which employs over 190,000 workers worldwide, will double staff salaries in October as “a special dedication award.”
An additional bonus would reportedly be distributed to all employees with a performance rating higher than C, who haven’t been reported for information security violations.
The South China Morning Post clarifies, citing Huawei employees who spoke on condition of anonymity, that the double salary will be allocated to the employee bank accounts on Friday, 15 November, just days after China’s Black Friday-style shopping holiday known as Singles Day.
The separate cash bonus is said to be worth a whopping 2 billion yuan, or $285 million, according to the South China Morning Post, it will be shared among people working in R&D, especially at Huawei’s chip-making subsidiary HiSilicon and the developers of Huawei’s in-house operating systems.
The Trump administration has accused Huawei of espionage and theft of intellectual property on behalf of the Chinese government. The company, which is not publicly traded, flatly rejects the accusations.
The Trump administration has moved to shut the US market for Huawei, through the trade ban has been delayed twice for 90 days. The latest waiver is due to extend on 19 November, and the White House has signalled it is unlikely to be renewed.
Donald Trump’s campaign to block the company’s technology from the burgeoning 5G networks across the world has thus far produced mixed results. That’s in addition to the ongoing extradition battle of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada last year and is sought in the US on charges of violating US sanctions on Iran.
Huawei has estimated that the US crackdown would cut about $30 billion from its annual revenue, but believes it will “survive without the US.” The company has reported a 24.4-percent hike in revenue and a 8.7-percent jump in profit in January-September this year — even despite US efforts to isolate it and a wider trade conflict between the US and China.
