Huawei Technologies saw slight revenue and profit growth in 2020, in line with its expectations, its rotating chairman said on Tuesday, even as Washington toughened up sanctions against the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker.

The company was put on an export blacklist by former US President Donald Trump in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology of US origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors.

Huawei has repeatedly denied it poses a security risk.

“Huawei was confronted with some extraordinary difficulties last year,” rotating chairman Ken Hu said at Mobile World Congress Shanghai. “Operations were relatively stable and in line with our guidance, registering slight growth in revenue and profit.”

Earlier this month, the company’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, said he hoped the Biden administration would “harbour an open policy” towards US firms doing business with Huawei in his first comments to the media in about a year.

China has so far spent more than 260-billion yuan (US$40.3-billion) in building its 5G network, an official with the ministry of information and IT said on Tuesday.

Indonesia, Ghana

Huawei on Monday unveiled its new 5G Mate X2 foldable phone, which will use the company’s proprietary Kirin processor. Though with the cheapest model starting at 17 999 yuan (R43 600), the phone is not positioned to challenge the mainstream phone market.

Huawei set up 50 000 5G base stations in Indonesia, Hu said, adding that it plans to build 2 000 base stations in remote regions of Ghana.