Chinese tech giant Lenovo denied the rumors on early Sunday morning about suspending supplies to Huawei due to U.S. pressure after the U.S. Commerce Department issued export controls targeting the Shenzhen-based firm.
Lenovo, a Chinese multinational conglomerate and the world's largest personal computer maker that has headquarters in China and in the U.S., said it still supplies products to Huawei, which remains its important customer, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times.
It also refuted rumors that it has cut off supplies to Huawei under U.S. pressure, the statement said.
A widely circulated post alleged that Lenovo has stopped the sale of PCs and servers to the Shenzhen-based firm due to the latest U.S. ban, and accused Lenovo a traitor.
Some Chinese netizens criticized Lenovo, saying that as a tech giant founded in China in the 1990s, the company is not patriotic at all when Chinese firms such as Huawei are being targeted by the U.S.
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday that it is adding Huawei and its 70 affiliates to the Entity List, which will ban the Chinese telecom giant from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.
However, considering collateral damage to supply chains, the U.S. Commerce Department is likely to scale back restrictions on Huawei, as blacklisting will hurt American companies like Qualcomm and Intel, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing was quoted in media reports in 2018 as saying that the company is not a Chinese company, which also sparked controversy. Lenovo was also alleged to be recalling faulty products in global markets but not in China, saying that Chinese consumers should support homegrown products.
The company later denied the allegation, saying that it has never discriminated against Chinese consumers, refuting online claims that the company exploited patriotic sentiment in a series of product recalls.
Huawei did not respond to the rumor about Lenovo cutting off supplies to it when asked about the matter by the Global Times on Sunday.
