Chinese company settles patent lawsuits with Verizon

Huawei is a global telecoms supplier and phone manufacturer, but it remains a pariah in countries like the US. The Chinese company has been under major scrutiny in recent years, with its phones rendered virtually invisible in the US and some European countries banning the use of its equipment in their 5G networks.

The company's chairman had predicted "difficult" times for Huawei, and there certainly have been challenges. The US has continued to pressure allies to block Huawei from their next-generation 5G wireless networks.

Huawei's phone sales also declined 41.1% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2020, and it reported declining 2020 revenue in every region except its native China (which was enough to make it profitable overall).

The core issue with Huawei has been concerns about its coziness with the Chinese government and fears that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies. It's the reason why, in 2012, the US banned companies from using Huawei networking equipment and why the company was added to the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List in May 2019, following an executive order from then-President Donald Trump that effectively banned Huawei from US communications networks. A year later, Trump extended the order until 2021, and the Biden administration hasn't reversed the senctions.

The US initially offered a reprieve to companies, allowing them to work with Huawei through a temporary general license, but the Commerce Department accused the company of exploiting the rules to continue using US technology in its semiconductor design. the US government tightened those rules in August 2020 and said the temporary general license wouldn't be extended further.

Huawei has long denied any wrongdoing and continues to maintain its innocence.

It can be tough to keep pace with the sheer number of headlines, so here's a timeline going back to 2018.