Huawei announces 5G smartphone based on own technology..

BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Huawei announced plans Wednesday for a next-generation smartphone that will use its own technology instead of US components, maneuvering to gain a competitive edge and sidestep US complaints it is a security risk.

The leading supplier of network switching gear for phone companies, Huawei Technologies Ltd. is spending heavily to develop its own chips, an area where the US dominates.

 That can reduce Huawei's multibillion-dollar annual components bill and help insulate it against possible supply disruptions when US-Chinese relations are strained.

The handset, billed by Huawei as the first foldable fifth-generation smartphone, will be unveiled next month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the industry's biggest annual event, said Richard Yu, CEO of the company's consumer unit.

The phone is based on Huawei's own Kirin 980 chipset and Balong 5000 modem. .. 

"In this complicated political environment, we still maintain strong growth," Yu said.

Chinese companies are competing with Western tech suppliers in telecoms, solar power, electric cars, biotechnology and other fields. The ruling Communist Party's plans for state-led development of such industries, along with robotics and artificial intelligence, helped triggered a trade war with President Donald Trump.

Both sides have raised tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of each othe ..