Social media users in China are rallying support for Huawei. They have also called for a boycott of Apple’s products in China to favour Huawei. This is the Chinese populace’s response to the United States’ pressure on Huawei.
Google and other American technology suppliers are looking to sever relations with Huawei too because of the US embargo.
There are already concerns that this might negatively affect Apple’s already dwindling phone sales, especially in China.
Chinese phone users are accusing the United States of bullying Huawei. Furthermore, they are rallying support for their domestic brand. On social media, some are saying they will now favour Huawei products over Apple’s.
The United States recently increased pressure to blacklist Huawei. The move thereby required American companies to get a special licence from the government before selling to Chinese telecommunication firms.
This may affect the supply of key software and hardware components to Huawei.
Meanwhile, Google followed the United States government’s 90-day restriction suspension to grant Huawei access to continue working with them.
Huawei is now working on a plan B to Android as Google might be taking the Operating System away from the company after the suspension.
Hashtag Chinese for Huawei
Social media users in China who are regarded as patriotic towards their home brands are expressing massive support for Huawei. There has been an ongoing trending hashtag on Weibo (China’s Twitter-like social platform) that means “Huawei’s chip doesn’t need to rely on U.S. supply chain.”
The hashtag already has about 50 million views.
Some translated posts from Weibo read:
“I’ve also decided to buy a Huawei Phone, and I will change my plan from buying an Apple Watch into a Huawei product, taking action to support Huawei. It had been bullied by the US so poorly recently.”
Another user wrote:
“Even though my stock investment account is facing a loss continuously, I’m still preparing to switch my other phone into Huawei, to show support with action.”
However, experts say that online declarations cannot be trusted. They argue that this may not cause a significant decline in Apple sales in China.
Greater China accounts for about 17% of Apple’s net sales.
Huawei, on the other hand, is the second biggest smartphone maker in the world. They come closely behind Samsung in market share.