Silver lining amid dark clouds as firm finds new avenues for cooperation

For Gan Bin, vice-president of 5G product development at Huawei Technologies Co, the past six months have been an unforgettable experience. He and other colleagues have been working overtime on an almost impossible mission: how to sustain normal business after Washington cut its access to US components.

This is arguably Huawei's biggest challenge in its 30-year-plus history, given that almost one third of its core suppliers were US companies. But eventually, Huawei seems to have come up with a way.

"Our shipments (of base stations) have grown 300 percent since May, without even a day getting interrupted (by the US ban)," Gan said. Washington banned the world's largest telecom gear maker from buying US components without special government approval in May on grounds of security risks, an accusation Huawei has repeatedly denied.