Gina Raimondo was the fourth high-level U.S. official to visit China this summer, suggesting that Washington is placing great importance in the country. But she is the first U.S. Commerce Secretary to travel to the country in five years. Hilariously, like her colleagues, Raimondo tried to lecture Beijing about national security, labour, business, economy and whatnot.

 

Here’s something funnier – as the U.S. Commerce Secretary was visiting China, Huawei quietly launched the Mate 60 Pro smartphone. The timing of the launch was to humiliate the U.S. and the new gadget has shocked not only the world, but also a slap in the face of Washington. How on earth did Huawei manage to rise from the ashes after vigorous suppressions from Trump and Biden?

 

A few years ago, Trump was not happy that Huawei’s 5G technology was ahead of the United States. Under the pretext of national security, the Chinese tech giant along with 68 affiliates was added to a trade blacklist in May 2019 – effectively requiring American companies to get approval from the U.S. government before conducting business with the Chinese firms.

The export ban saw some American tech giants like Google, Intel, Xilinx, Broadcom and Qualcomm cutting business agreements with Huawei. It was Trump’s attempt to block Huawei from rolling out 5G around the world. Washington claims the 5G network technology offered by Huawei could be used by China for espionage, an allegation that the U.S. can’t prove until today.

 

Obviously, Huawei refused to surrender despite several years of relentless U.S. attacks. On the contrary, the tech company has been waiting to show the “middle finger” to the most powerful country in the world. Huawei’s three-year absence from the 5G smartphone market has come to its end. Crucially, it wanted Raimondo to deliver the sad news back to Washington – Huawei is unstoppable.

 

To be precise, the revelation of Huawei Mate 60 Pro is China’s message to the U.S. that the Chinese technological development is unstoppable. Donald Trump, followed by Joe Biden, had made a huge mistake when they tried to end Huawei. The attack on Huawei is an attack on China. And you can’t beat a company which has the full support of a country like China.

Even without advertising or marketing, the first batch of Mate 60 Pro phones was sold out in less than an hour. Heck, there isn’t any technical specification because Huawei chose to play it mysterious. The smartphone does not even show “4G” or “5G” signals on its status bar. The lack of information makes people go crazy as they discussed online whether it is a 5G phone.

 

There could be three reasons why Huawei deliberately kept everything low profile. Chinese haters quickly suggested one reason – it was just another 4G phone disguised as a 5G smartphone, hence the reluctance to reveal anything. However, such silly argument does not hold water as it would be a matter of days before the capability of the gadget is exposed to the public.

 

The second reason – Huawei wanted to spark a massive rush by the Western technology industry to reveal what is beneath the Mate 60 Pro. By creating utmost curiosity, not only it will receive free marketing, but also will raise eyebrows – and concerns – as news spread like wildfire in Washington that the U.S. sanctions have failed to prevent China from making a key technological advance.

The third reason – the Shenzhen-based technology corporation does not want to provoke Biden administration into imposing new sanctions just so that the White House can save face. Without official claims of Mate 60 Pro’s capability, Sleepy Joe does not need to retaliate and can therefore pretend that the Chinese-made phone isn’t as good or as advanced as American’s.

 

Out of curiosity, even Bloomberg had purchased a Huawei Mate 60 Pro to do a complete teardown. What they found was both shocking and flabbergasting. It has an advanced chip inside that was both designed and manufactured in China despite U.S. export bans designed to prevent China from making technical jump. The new Kirin 9000s chip was a cutting-edge 7-nanometre processor.

 

The plan was to cripple Huawei (and China) so that it cannot achieve mass production of chips as advanced as 14-nanometre, let alone 7-nanometre. Beijing’s mouthpieces tried to deceive Washington that the Chinese were able to only produce 28-nanometre chips. Imagine the shock when it was revealed that the Huawei Mate 60 Pro is powered by 7-nanometre chip.

With average speeds of 300 Mbps – even peak speeds exceeding 800 Mbps – the Mate 60 Pro is definitely a 5G smartphone, or at least possesses all the 5G capabilities. It is also Huawei’s first handset that supports satellite calls, allowing connectivity even in remote areas. Available in purple, black, white, silver, and greenish blue, the Mate 60 Pro is priced at 6,999 Yuan for 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

 

The Kirin 9000s is designed with a 12-core configuration using a “2+6+4 architecture”. It consists of two A34 cores, six customized A78AE cores, and four A510 cores. The highest clock speed it can achieve is 2.62GHz. The Huawei Mate 60 Pro also features a 6.82-inch OLED screen with a screen resolution of FHD+ 2720 x 1260 pixels. It is equipped with a triple rear camera system – 50MP + 48MP + 12MP.

 

While some might laugh because the Kirin 9000s processor matches the performance of Apple’s iPhone from 2018, not to mention the 7-nanometre processor is behind current iPhone’s 5-nanometre processor made by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd), one has to remember that the new chip is manufactured entirely by Chinese largest chipmaker SMIC.

The West thought that SMIC – Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation – won’t be able to produce cutting-edge chips because the company has been sanctioned since 2020. Additionally, it has been unable to obtain the extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines which only Dutch firm ASML is capable of making. And ASML is prohibited from exporting EUV machines to China.

 

However, as tested by Bloomberg, the Kirin 9000s manufactured by SMIC using something called the “7-nanometre process” shows that Mate 60 Pro is capable of cellular speeds on par with 5G devices like Apple Inc’s latest iPhones. Of course, Huawei, and Beijing for that matter, made sure that Raimondo witnessed how Huawei breaking through the American blockade.

 

Many also do not know that Huawei actually has its own in-house chip design agency called HiSilicon. Previously, the chipset designing division used U.S. software and equipment to design and custom-made semiconductors for Huawei. Taiwanese TSMC then would be engaged to produce Kirin chips for Huawei. However, TSMC also used American chip making equipment.

So, when Trump changed the rule of the game out of jealousy and fear,  prohibiting overseas manufacturers such as TSMC supplying products to Huawei, the Chinese tech giant was temporarily crippled. Its smartphone sales plunged, so much so it had to spin off Honor, a smartphone brand under the Huawei Consumer Business Group, in November 2020 to ensure the brand’s survival.

 

Recently, several research firms said they expect Huawei to return to making 5G smartphones by the end of the year by procuring chips domestically, in spite of the U.S. restrictions. A Washington-based semiconductor association – Semiconductor Industry Association – revealed that Huawei is building a collection of secret semiconductor-fabrication factories across China in order to evade U.S. sanctions.

 

The plan was quite simple and brilliant. To prevent being linked to Huawei or its affiliates, the new chip facilities are being built or acquired under the names of other companies. In short, it’s through proxy companies and pseudonyms. The strategy allows the company to avoid the U.S. government restrictions. The best part is the tactic enables Huawei to “indirectly” acquire American chip-making equipment.

But the Mate 60 Pro is just the beginning. The Huawei breakthrough comes as China is seeking to raise a US$40 billion fund to sponsor investments in domestic chipmaking and research – clearly in retaliation against U.S. sanctions. Huawei actually moved into chip production since last year, and is receiving an estimated US$30 billion in funding from the Chinese government.

 

American chipmakers had previously warned that sanctions would not stop China, but instead would encourage it to redouble efforts to build alternatives to the U.S. technology. After the revelation of Huawei’s smartphone, people in China said that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. The Mate 60 is a major blow to all of Huawei’s former technology suppliers, mostly U.S. companies.

 

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September 6th, 2023 by financetwitter

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