It’s no longer a secret that the relationship between Huawei and the United States is a tensioned one. And it appears that it will remain like this for the while, as the Chinese manufacturer is reportedly rewarding its employees who are strengthening the company, in the trade war with the US Government.
According to a report from the Financial Times, quoted by Insider, the technology giant has prepared over $286 million in bonuses for employees who contribute to helping the firm reduce the impact of sanctions.
To be more specific, Huawei has put together a special department, consisting of people who are in charge of reducing the manufacturer’s reliance on foreign suppliers. All members should focus on finding new, alternative supply chains, but also research and development.
The bonus is to be shared between a maximum of 20,000 employees, meaning that each one should receive at least $14,000 from the Chinese giant.
No signs of ending the trade war
This finding will simply prolong the trade war between the United States and China, began this May, after the latter was put on a trade blacklist, thus preventing US companies to work with Huawei, as well as other names, without a license.
And Huawei was among the companies that registered some serious losses as a consequence over the past months, mostly in terms of smartphone sales.
Basically, none of their latest handsets comes with Google’s pre-installed applications and operating systems, like in the past, which is a major blow.
Huawei eventually announced that they were somehow expecting this and have been working on their own operating system, HarmonyOS, which will be Android’s replacement. Still, it’s not the best option, according to one executive, who claims that the OS may not be completely ready for a few years.
An old practice
Back to their ways of incentivizing employees, it’s not necessarily something new.
In January 2020, Huawei was accused by the United States Department of Justice of offering bonuses to employees for providing confidential information, obtained from other companies, including T-Mobile.
As expected, all charges were denied but this managed just to affect Huawei’s image in the United States, already damaged by past scandals, including the one started by Donald Trump, after accusing the Chinese government of spying through smartphones.
At the moment, many members of the US Government believe that Huawei products – particularly smartphones and its 5G networks – should be considered a security risk, due to its connections with the Chinese government.
So far, the manufacturer has denied all accusations, claiming that the Chinese government doesn’t play any role at all in its operations.
Currently, Huawei is the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer, with a 27 perfect rise in terms of revenue, at the end of Q3 2019. However, it will be incredibly difficult to support its growth if the trade war with the United States continues.
