If there is something the Chinese in China can do, it is to outspend the rest of the entire planet -- if they really wanted to.

Patriotic domestic consumption

After Huawei got hit by US trade restrictions on its business in mid-May 2019, the company's smartphone sales in China in 2019 acutally surged by a nearly a third (38 percent to be exact) compared to 2018.

Spurred by promotions and patriotic purchases, domestic consumption in China alone has helped to more than offset a shipments slump in the global market, Reuters reported.

Record high revenue for consumer business

Huawei said in July 2019 the consumer business group turned in revenue of 221 billion yuan (S$43 billion) in the first half of the year -- a record high in the June quarter.

All of Huawei’s major rivals, including Apple and Xiaomi, lost ground in the period, the Wall Street Journal previously reported in early August 2019.

Huawei not as badly hit

Huawei also said the impact of US trade restrictions on its business could push its smartphone unit's revenue lower by about US$10 billion (S$13.9 billion) for 2019.

But the good news is that this figure will be less than what it initially feared.

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in June the blacklisting would hit the company's revenue by US$30 billion (S$41.7 billion).

Huawei Technologies is a US$100 billion business.

Its consumer business group reported revenue of 349 billion yuan (S$67.9 billion) in 2018.

However, Ren had also expressed confidence that the US has underestimated the Chinese technology firm and how far ahead it already is compared to its closest competitors.

Impact not clear yet

Since the middle of 2019, Washington threatened to cut off Huawei's access to essential US components and technology by putting the world's second-largest smartphone maker in a so-called Entity List.

A pessimistic assessment of Huawei's ability to generate revenue would leave it without any topline growth for 2019.

Since nothing is clear at the moment, Huawei's results in March 2020 will be the figure to look out for.