Earlier this month the persistent rumors were proven true: Huawei sold off its Honor brand to a consortium of Chinese companies. The sale was widely believed to have been triggered by the various bans that Huawei has been subjected to by the US government.

Today Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei admitted at a company employee forum that the sale was necessary because of the smartphone unit being “under tremendous pressure due to a persistent unavailability of technical elements needed”.

He added that Huawei could overcome the difficulties, but decided to sell Honor so that the people it employs, as well as its distributors, wouldn’t lose their jobs if sales channels dried up.

Ren continued: “Wave after wave of severe US sanctions against Huawei has led us to finally understand certain American politicians want to kill us, not just correct us”.

He wants Honor to become Huawei’s biggest competitor after their “divorce”, and says Honor’s employees should be motivated by wanting to topple its former parent company. That’s a long way from being achievable, at least for now, as Honor smartphone sales made up only about 26% of Huawei’s total in Q3.

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