Survival going to be our first priority in 2020, says Huawei chairman Eric Xu

Chinese technology giant Huawei on Tuesday said its revenue for 2019 is expected to hit a record $122 billion, a growth of 18% over the previous year.

Though lower than its initial projections, the double digit growth in Huawei's revenue this year comes despite a spirited campaign by the Donald Trump administration in the US to reduce its global business.

In a New Year's message to employees, Huawei's Rotating Chairman Eric Xu wrote that the company sold 240 million smartphones this year, up from 206 million last year.

"These figures are lower than our initial projections, yet business remains solid and we stand strong in the face of adversity," he wrote.

Xu said the coming year could prove to be even more difficult for the company to "survive and thrive".

Survival would be Huawei's first priority in 2020, he said.

"That said, the external environment is becoming more complicated than ever, and downward pressure on the global economy has intensified. In the long term, the US government will continue to suppress the development of leading technology - a challenging environment for Huawei to survive and thrive," Xu said in the message.

The US added Huawei to the Commerce Department's trade blacklist this year, making it difficult for the company to do business with its American suppliers.

"In 2020, we will continue to remain on the US Entity List. We won't grow as rapidly as we did in the first half of 2019, growth that continued throughout the year owing to sheer momentum in the market," Xu said.

"It's going to be a difficult year for us. We will have nothing to rely on but the hard work of our people, as well as the ongoing trust and support of our customers and partners," he said.