Background: US Conflict and Huawei Conflict - Chronology and Causes

_{Source: The Hacker News}

What happened?

US President Donald Trump, by decree banning the use of equipment that represents a threat to US national security , put the Chinese company Huawei in a difficult situation. She lost the opportunity to work with the Android OS, proprietary Google services and contacts with a US corporation. And the right to use Android Huawei lost all over the world, and not just the United States.

On May 15 of this year, the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to the Entity List, banning it from purchasing electronic components and parts from US companies without the approval of the US government. On May 21, the restriction was temporarily lifted , for the sake of "minimizing customer failures," but from August 19 it will act on an ongoing basis. The cause of the conflict between the USA and Huawei is a trade war, between the PRC and America. But the decision itself did not appear suddenly, it matured for several years.

How did it all start?

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In January 2003, Cisco accused Huawei of violating its patents and illegally copying the Cisco IOS operating system and the command line interface. The lawsuit stated that Huawei copied source codes, Cisco documentation, and other copyrighted material. The American company demanded not only to stop using its intellectual property, but also to compensate for the damage resulting from illegal actions.

In June of the same year, a US court found Cisco to be the victim . And at the same time, the judge refused to completely prohibit the use of Huawei software for network equipment. Also, the court did not forbid Huawei to use the command line interface.

In 2004, a new conflict arose. It became known about the letter from Fujitsu Network Communications management to Huawei CEO. It talked about an employee of a Chinese company, Yi Bin Zhu, who carefully studied the electronic components of a device released by Fujitsu for telecom operators. This would not be unusual if the employee did not disassemble this device right at the trade show , where the Fujitsu system was shown to visitors. Caught confessed that he was photographing components. On the spy badge it appeared that he was working for the company Weihua, but in his pocket was found a business card, where it appeared that this person was an employee of Huawei. Representatives of the latter said they knew nothing about this man or his intentions.

In 2008, the US government accused Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE of threatening America’s security.


_{US government representatives announce information threat from Chinese telecommunications companies}

It was reported that the equipment of these companies is used by the US military, government organizations, academic institutions and corporations, and it “merges” information on the Network into China. Therefore, the US military and government officials banned the purchase of equipment from the People's Republic of China, while Huawei and ZTE lost the opportunity to acquire American startups.

At that time, Huawei was not yet one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones and electronic devices. This company was known only as a supplier of specialized equipment for telecom operators. Having lost the opportunity to act in the United States, the Chinese shifted to other markets.

But after all, Huawei smartphones were sold in the US?

It's like that. After a couple of years, the company began to supply mobile devices to the world market. Things went so well that Google in 2015 even ordered the creation of a Nexus 6P smartphone from them. The phone appeared in the American retail, but the operators did not sell it, but without their support there was no noticeable growth. After a couple of years, Huawei planned to sell the Mate 10 Pro smartphone in the US, but it did not work out again - as far as one can understand, the refusal of operators to cooperate with a Chinese company was influenced by the US government.

Despite the difficulties, in 2018, Huawei mobile sales grew to 200 million units.

At what point did Huawei start having serious problems?

In March 2018, the largest US retailer network, Best Buy, ceased cooperation with the Chinese. A few weeks later, the Pentagon banned the military to buy Huawei and ZTE phones . Congress "asked" Google to stop cooperating with Huawei.

Charges by the United States of stealing information of state importance led to the fact that other countries were also wary of Huawei. Telecom operators in Australia , Japan and the UK stopped working with it.

At the end of 2018, the financial director of Huawei, Meng Wangzhou, was arrested. From Canada she had to go to the United States for, in fact, an interrogation. It turned out that Huawei is accused of violating the embargo on the supply of telecommunications equipment to Iran.

And now what?

The USA can also cancel the presidential decree after the conflict with China has subsided. But when it happens and whether it happens at all is unclear.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said that the company is ready for the restrictions imposed by the United States. Blacklisting will not greatly affect the work of a Chinese corporation. Ren said that the pace of development of the company may slow down, but “it’s not going to a negative level”.

But how can Huawei go on without Android?

Representatives of the company have already announced that they are ready for prohibitive measures by the United States. In the fall, Huawei will introduce its own operating system. Consumer Sector Executive Director Yu Chengdong (also known as Richard Yu) said that the proprietary OS "will allow integrating smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars, smart wearable devices and other devices into one." "Huawei OS will combine everything you need from Android and the Internet," said Yu.

Will there be updates for the already released Huawei models for Android?

If the firmware is already released models and will cease to be updated, the phones will still remain operational. Installed applications will continue to work and are likely to receive updates.

In extreme cases, you can install an alternative firmware, for example, LineageOS. It is designed for such Huawei smartphones as Honor View 10, Honor 4 / 4X, Honor 5X and Huawei P20 Pro.

What to do if you disable the app store for smartphones Huawei?

If you disable Google Play for already released phones, applications can be downloaded from alternative directories or directly using * .APK files. This is inconvenient, but if there is no other way out, then this is the only way.