Chongqing - Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei once again drew public attention with its fall product launch on September 25. The company introduced new tablets, watches, TVs, and high-end branded smartphones, specifically the “Ultimate Design” models. However, for many attendees, the event format seemed even more intriguing.
Opening with a pop song chorus, “My Dream,” Hong Kong star Andy Lau endorsed the new products. The event later concluded with a popular music chorus, “The Glorious Years,” creating a highly emotional atmosphere.
The fall new product launch of Huawei. (Photo/Huawei)
Xiang Ligang, a telecommunications industry observer, viewed this release as a phenomenal event where the spiritual content transcended the product launch. “The message delivered through the emotional performance is that Huawei has achieved the seemingly impossible, and beautifully so,” Xiang said.
On the Chinese video site Bilibili, a user commented, “Huawei is already a great enterprise.”
The online discussion about the launch revolves around Huawei’s attempt to showcase its achievements while seemingly overlooking the public’s curiosity about its latest chip. Born after U.S. sanctions against Huawei, this chip is considered likely to be self-developed and self-produced, implying a genuine breakthrough in foreign technology blockade by Huawei.
Regrettably, at the conference, Huawei did not mention information about its previously released Mate 60 smartphones and details about chips and lithography machines. Xiang found this understandable: "Consumers might be interested, but rivals across the ocean might be more so.” Revealing too much could incur further U.S. sanctions, potentially harming China’s chip industry.
As a top tech private enterprise in China, Huawei’s public attention constantly intertwines with international politics due to the context of the China-U.S. trade and tech wars, placing the company at the forefront of public opinion, domestically and internationally.
Recent U.S. Congressional discussions focused on Huawei’s new phones. On September 6, Mike Gallagher, an influential Republican lawmaker in Congress, proposed halting all technology exports to Huawei and SMIC following the discovery of potentially trade-restricted new chips in Huawei phones. This led to a significant drop in SMIC’s domestic and international share prices on September 7. Huawei hasn’t confirmed whether SMIC made the new phone’s chips.
Addressing lawmakers’ inquiries, U.S. Commerce Secretary Ray Mundo said on September 19 that there’s no evidence indicating China’s capability to mass-produce phones with advanced chips, suggesting no immediate intensification of sanctions against Huawei by the U.S. government.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning answered journalists’ queries on the U.S. response to Huawei’s new smartphone launch on September 20, “Containment and suppression cannot stop China’s development; they will only enhance China’s determination and capability for self-reliance and technological innovation.”