Huawei spin-off Honor responds to US blacklist threat during launch of the Magic 3 smartphone with digital yuan wallet

As US lawmakers seek to blacklist budget smartphone brand Honor, CEO George Zhao said the company’s problems will be solved if it continues to do well

Zhao made the comments at the launch event for the Magic 3, the first Snapdragon phone to have hardware support for the digital yuan

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Published: 5:00pm, 13 Aug 2021Updated: 10:21pm, 13 Aug 2021

Chinese smartphone maker Honor has said it will do what it can to maintain momentum in the face of threats from the US to add the company to the same trade blacklist that forced its former parent Huawei Technologies Co to sell the budget brand to a consortium of partners last year.

During the Thursday launch event for the Magic 3 series, the brand’s first post-Huawei flagship smartphones, CEO George Zhao Ming responded to media questions about the 14 members of the US House of Representatives who urged the country’s Department of Commerce to add Honor to the US Entity List.

“We believe that if we keep on doing well in what we do that all these problems can be solved,” Zhao told Chinese media at the event. He also emphasised that Honor is now an independent company that is no longer involved with Huawei.

The Honor Magic 3 Pro Plus is Huawei’s most ambitious foray into high-end smartphones, costing upwards of US$1,200. Photo: Honor

Honor has been fighting hard to sever ties with its former parent in recent months in an effort to restore relationships with Western component suppliers such as US chip maker Qualcomm. At the launch of the Magic 3 series, the chip maker’s newly appointed CEO Cristiano Amon made comments via a pre-recorded video in support of the new phones. The Magic 3 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chipset, while the Magic 3 Pro and the Magic 3 Pro Plus use the Snapdragon 888 Plus.

In May 2019, the US Commerce Department added Shenzhen-based Huawei to its Entity List, effectively blocking the telecoms equipment maker from doing business with American companies. Restrictions were further tightened last year that made it even harder for Huawei to acquire advanced chips made with US-origin technology. By November, Huawei had sold off its rising Honor brand to spare it from the sanctions.

Even before Huawei’s divestment, Honor had been trying to move up market and shed its budget-brand image. The Magic 3 series marks the brand’s most ambitious foray into the high-end smartphone segment, with prices as high as 7,999 yuan (US$1,235).

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