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What is Huawei?

Many people outside of the conspiracy community think Huawei is just a Chinese tech company that develops & sells telecommunications equipments and consumer electronics.

However, it's the CCP's top defense contractor specialized in building the next-gen air defense & missile systems as well as surveillance systems with Hikvision.

Elaboration on this point: Huawei & International Arms Race

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Who contributed most to how Huawei has become what it is today?

Bill Gates and Microsoft (Scroll to bottom)

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The Trump administration and Huawei:

During the trade war, the Trump administration made it illegal to sell the US-made components to Huawei, including the latest-gen computer chips which Huawei relies on. However, it was not much of a blow the admin hoped it to be against Huawei, because the chipmakers were able keep shipping those chips to Huawei from factories outside of the US.

So, on May 15 last year, the US administration extended its restrictions from chips to the equipments that are used to make the chips. And one thing to note here is that many of components in the equipments are made with the US-patented techs.

Now, if the chip producers, like TSMC or Qualcomm, want to use said equipments (and they have to), they will not be able to produce Huawei-designed chips anywhere in the world and won't be able to sell them to Huawei.

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What do you see from four articles cited below?

Article #1

Jul 30, 2020 -- Huawei overtakes Samsung to be No. 1 smartphone player in the world thanks to China as overseas sales drop

Huawei became the biggest smartphone player in the world in the second quarter for the first time, a new report by Canalys shows. ... But analysts cast doubt over whether this was sustainable given the fact Huawei’s overseas markets outside of China took a hit as a result of U.S. sanctions against the company.

Article #2

Jan 28, 2021 -- From No. 1 to No. 6, Huawei smartphone shipments plunge 41% as U.S. sanctions bite

U.S. sanctions are taking their toll on Huawei’s smartphone business. In 2019, Huawei was put on a U.S. blacklist called the Entity List which restricted American firms from exporting key components and software to the company.

The biggest effect of that was cutting Huawei off from Google’s Android operating system. ... And last year, Washington effectively cut Huawei off from the cutting-edge chips it requires from Taiwan semiconductor manufacturer TSMC.

Article #3

Nov 17, 2020 -- Huawei Sells Off Honor Phone Business as U.S. Sanctions Bite

Huawei said Tuesday that it would sell its budget smartphone brand Honor to a new company that records show is majority owned by a unit of the government of Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city where Huawei is based. More than three dozen other Chinese entities, including state-owned companies and dealers of Honor devices, also have an unspecified stake in the consortium.

Article #4

Jan 22, 2021 -- Honor partners with Intel, Qualcomm after Huawei split

Chinese budget phone maker Honor has signed partnerships with major chip suppliers such as Intel and Qualcomm after being spun off from under-fire parent Huawei Technologies in a bid to save it last year, it said on Friday.

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I am suspecting that

after the 2020 US election, Huawei asked the incoming US administration to lift the sanctions on Huawei. The sooner the better, cause we're hemorrhaging billions of dollars here, the Chinese company probably pressed.

So, someone has suggested that:

"Since it'd take some times to get all the admin officials approved (and lifting the sanction on a Chinese company this soon won't be good for the optics too),

why don't you, Huawei, sell your smartphone division to another Chinese company for now just to change the ownership on paper, and let that company make & sell smartphones without being affected by the pesky sanctions?"

How do we know whether my suspicion is close to correct?

Easy. We'll see IF Honor starts to produce high-end smartphones late this year or early next year.