Huawei Says Revenue Jumped 23% Despite Tensions With U.S.

Chinese tech giant Huawei says its revenue for the first half of 2019 soared 23% from a year ago, even though the U.S. put it on an export blacklist that will effectively ban U.S. companies from providing Huawei with critical components, such as computer chips.

"Given the situation, you might think things have been chaotic for us," Huawei Chairman Liang Hua said in a statement. "But that's far from the case."

Alluding to tensions with the Trump administration, Liang compared the tech company to an airplane riddled with bullet holes: "We need to patch up these holes without losing altitude."

Still, he said neither production nor shipment of smartphones, computers and wireless network hardware had been interrupted, "not for one single day," though he noted that the company did see a dip in its intelligent computing sales.

Sales in the six months through June were just over $58.3 billion, according to Liang. But he says the company will "face difficulties" in the second half.

The U.S. views Huawei as a national security threat, saying it has close links with the Chinese government and that its equipment could be used for surveillance by Beijing, allegations that Huawei denies.