Huawei first-quarter sales drop 16.5% as US sanctions bite

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said on Wednesday that first-quarter revenue tumbled after harsh US sanctions ripped into its phone business. Huawei has been at the centre of intense US-China trade and technological rivalry in recent years and the Trump administration accused it of potential espionage on behalf of Beijing without providing hard evidence. As a result, it was placed by Washington on a 2019 blacklist that prevented it from acquiring US-made technology crucial to its operations, in particular chips. Its 5G infrastructure has also been removed or delayed in a succession of Western countries on national security concerns, which drew…