Booth Xiaomi at the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Barcelona – Continued by US President Donald Trump’s conflict with China due to technological and trade weaver tenants heavy over Chinese smartphones who have been growing globally in recent years, creating uncertainty about whether some of these companies can target Washington, similar to Huawei.
At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Chinese players electronics from Xiaomi In honor and oppo they were in effect, showing their latest devices. Xiaomi even had its latest electric vehicle – Su7 Ultra – In the exhibition what it looked like to create a buzz.
Xiaomi also launched a top -notch smartphone while Honor announced investments in AI $ 10 billion. OPPO advertised its privacy features and other lesser-known players like TECNO, owned by transmission, have discovered products like AI glasses.
Huawei was also present and showed Mate XT, a triple smartphone which he launched in international markets as that Graphically very careful return to the global sphere.
To some extent, Huawei serves as a cautious story to other Chinese players. The company based in Shenzhen was once the largest smartphone supplier in the world to US sanctions broke the job with mobile devices.
Just as Huawei wants to re -immerse the toe into international sales of smartphones, and other Chinese players are growing fast, Trump has returned to the White House, which is likely to overshadow the presence of these companies on MWC, according to Ben Wood, the main analyst at CCS Insight.
“I think that for Huawei, just as they start back to their feet, Trump’s re-emergence and his overall strategy related to” America first “and put pressure on the Chinese, not only affects Huawei, but affects all Chinese manufacturers who will be on MWC.”
“I think it will be an elephant in the MWC room, with regard to the huge amount of investment and lavish consumption by Chinese manufacturers, with the shadow of what will happen in the coming months.”
Xiaomi, Oppo and Honor were not immediately available for comment when they were contacted by CNBC.
Chinese players have been a MWC feature for several years because they have expanded the mark around the world. Now eight of the top 10 smartphone players are headquartered in China, according to Canalys. Xiaomi, for example, is the third largest in the world.
Xiaomi displayed its new Su7 Ultra electric car at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Xiaomi has increased its presence in Europe, while others, like a transsion, focused on emerging markets. With this success, the potential for further supervision comes, Wood said.
“The danger to these manufacturers is if they put their heads too far above the parapet, they will begin to monitor the US administration,” Wood said.
“So, I think they have to pull a fine line in Barcelona and ensure that they don’t make too much noise, because the last thing they want to be to be a poster for Chinese technology and become the latest foci for Trump and its advisers.”
So far, Trump has focused on raising the tariff to Chinese imports. But there are few actions on the front of a technological limit. Under the previous President Joe Biden, Washington brought several circles of limitations that seemed to interrupt the Chinese approach to advanced technology in areas such as semiconductors.
European focus
Other analysts agree that there is a risk of increased supervision, but indicate several key reasons why other Chinese manufacturers may not be limited as Huawei.
Francisco Jeronimo, Vice President of Data and Analitics at International Data Corporation (IDC), said Chinese brands focus their efforts to Europe and not to the US, which could help refuse Washington control.
“They [Chinese players] I definitely have no chance of selling to the US, but if they continue to target Europe as they are, I don’t think it’s a risk and I don’t think it will come to a point where the US administration will say which countries in Europe need to stop selling Xiaomi or honor or any other brand, “Jeronimo told CNBC.
“I don’t think there is a huge risk because at the end of the day, because they do not target us consumers.”
Honor announced in an investment of $ 10 billion called Honor Alpha Plan on Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Another reason why the United States may not target Chinese companies as strong as Huawei is that it could harm US technological companies, according to Neil Shahu, a partner at Counterpoint Research.
“It’s hard to say how much Trump will tighten the screws to Chinese players because they depend on Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm,” Shah told CNBC.
Chinese players selling outside Chinese operating systems have launched on their smartphones on their smartphones. In the meantime, many of us rely on chips from us Qualcomm. Many Chinese smartphone manufacturers also sell laptops and tablets that can be launched Microsoft Windows operating system.
The restriction of Chinese companies access to this technology could hurt US companies, Shah claims.
“Qualcomm will lose, Microsoft will lose and in the end Google will lose,” Shah said.
