The claims were reported by the Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday and said both the Chinese federal government and the government in Shenzhen, where Huawei is based, had contributed money in the order of US$30 billion (A$46.3 billion) to the company for this initiative.

Neither Huawei nor the SIA has made any public statement about this claim. iTWire has contacted both organisations for comment.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Huawei was making a bid to return to the 5G smartphone industry by the end of 2023.

Bloomberg has made a number of claims about Chinese companies in the past, many of which have turned out to be speculation and nothing else. For example, in October last year, the news agency claimed a Shenzhen-based start-up known as Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing was aiming to help Huawei get around American sanctions.

But in its own story, Bloomberg admitted Pengxinwei had not yet got off the ground at the time, making a great deal of its extremely lengthy report speculative. Other speculative reports by Bloomberg concerning China are here and here.

In May 2019, the US placed Huawei on its Entity List; American firms cannot sell products made in the US with more than 25% of American content to companies on this list, without obtaining a licence.

But Huawei was able to easily get around this restriction by getting products it needed supplied by branches of American firms located outside the US.

However, being on the Entity List entry meant Huawei was unable to continue using the proprietary version of Google's Android mobile operating system; this includes apps like Gmail, Maps, Drive, YouTube, the PlayStore and Photos.

Huawei had to confine itself to using the open-source version of Android, which has none of these apps. Google applied for an exemption to continue supplying Huawei, but did not get one. Microsoft was more successful, obtaining a waiver from the Department of Commerce to continue supplying the Shenzhen firm with Windows that Huawei uses on its laptops.

The US came back in May 2020 with further restrictions aimed at cutting off Huawei's supply of advanced semiconductors which it was getting mostly from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The additional restrictions were imposed via the Foreign Direct Product Rule that makes it necessary for any company — American or foreign — that sells American products or those made using American technology to require a permit before selling to Huawei.

There has been further tightening in the years since, with an order in October 2022 blocking the export of high-end semiconductors to China.

This month, the US imposed curbs on American investment in firms it claims could help boost Beijing's armed forces with the aim being to block access to technologies around AI, quantum technology and semiconductors.