https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Neither-China-nor-Huawei-will-be-held-back-by-U.S.-pressure

"China's Huawei Technologies has been targeted by the most powerful nation in the world like almost no other company.

Its ability to not only persevere since being placed in 2019 on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List -- a blacklist that essentially rules out normal trading with American companies -- but to thrive in the face of unrelenting hostility is an
inspirational achievement worth appreciating.

Moreover, Huawei's resilience in the face of this challenge has broader significance as a possible harbinger for the future of China, as the U.S. increasingly widens the scope of its restrictions on normal trade and exchanges.

Crucial to Huawei's survival was the early recognition of the possible threat it faced as a target of American rage. This led it to develop appropriate contingency plans such as identifying alternative suppliers, redesigning products so they were devoid
of American components, and preparing as much as possible to be more self-sufficient.

Since being sanctioned, these measures have accelerated. In addition, Huawei has launched new business lines, such as autonomous vehicles and cloud computing, that are not as directly affected by sanctions as its traditional telecommunications equipment
and mobile phone operations. It has also diversified geographically to markets less susceptible to American threats and arm-twisting, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

These strategies have borne fruit. Last month, Eric Xu, the company's rotating co-chair, and Meng Wenzhou, the chief financial officer previously indicted in the U.S., reported that revenues from the company's enterprise division rose 30% last year,
helping lift overall sales by 0.9% to 642.3 billion yuan ($93.1 billion).

While net profits tumbled heavily from a year earlier, the company said it had boosted research and development spending by 13.2% to the equivalent of a quarter of total revenue to support the creation of new products and services.

Huawei has thus shown that it can adapt to the new geopolitical environment it has been thrown into, and as it rebuilds legacy businesses cleansed of American components and technologies, these operations may enjoy even greater long-term competitiveness.

Ironically then, American efforts to strangle Huawei may lead to it becoming even more central to the world's digital future as it leverages its capabilities to take leading positions in new markets such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and
autonomous vehicles while clawing back lost ground in smartphones and networking equipment. American companies, workers and investors this time will not share in the benefits of Huawei's achievements.

Huawei's strategies for planning for and responding to American sanctions parallel how China has prepared for greater American hostility and responded to actual U.S. attacks in recent years."

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