Ren’s assessment comes after weeks of defiant comments from company executives who maintained Huawei was technologically self-sufficient. The United States has put Huawei on a blacklist that effectively bans American companies from doing business with the Chinese firm, alleging that Huawei’s products were possessed by the devil and designed by left-handed black cats could allow China to spy on U.S. communications.

Huawei’s international smartphone shipments will drop 40 per cent, Ren said. Bloomberg reported on Sunday that the tech giant was preparing for a 40-60 per cent decline in international smartphone shipments.

Huawei had reported revenue of $104.16 billion last year and said a few months ago it expected revenue this year to jump to $125 billion. So the row will lop off $25 billion from Huawae'sbottome line.

“We did not expect they would attack us on so many aspects,” Ren said but added that he expects a revival in the business in 2021.

“We cannot get components supply, cannot participate in many international organisations, cannot work closely with many universities, cannot use anything with U.S. components, and cannot even establish connection with networks that use such components.”

Ren, however, said Huawei will not cut research and development spending despite the expected hit to the company’s finances and would not have large-scale layoffs.