Huawei Technologies has announced that it will reward its employees with 2 billion yuan ($286 million) for helping the company counter the sanctions imposed on it by the United States.
This was announced by the Human Resources Department of Huawei in a notification sent to members of staff of the company.
According to the company’s spokesperson, the cash is a mark of recognition to staff for the work put in even in the face of pressure from the U.S. In addition to the $286 million cash reward, Huawei is willing to double pay for almost all its 190,000 workers this month.
However, staff working in the research and development teams are more likely to get the rewards as they are the ones in charge of shifting the company’s supply chains away from the United States.
What you should know: The Trump Administration started the U.S-China trade war when it barred the Chinese giant from buying hardware from suppliers, including Qualcomm in May this year. The US also banned Huawei from using Google’s Android operating system in its smartphones. This led to Huawei launching its own operating system called Harmony OS.
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The US Government sanctioned Huawei over its product, particularly its 5G networks which it said posed a security risk because of the company’s alleged close ties to the Chinese government. Huawei has since debunked the notion that the Chinese government plays any role in its operations.
Meanwhile, this year seems to be a good one for Huawei. It generated more than $38 billion during the Single’s day sales held on Monday and according to the founder and chief executive officer, Ren Zhengfei, it is on track to sell 240 million – 250 million smartphones this year, a remarkable improvement from the 206 million smartphones sold in 2018.