China is a powerhouse on its own, and there is no way for anyone or anything to put it on a leash for too long, especially when it comes to technology, the internet, and the lucrative industries that come with it.

The U.S. has imposed a number of Sanctions on China in recent years, in an effort to curb the country's technological development and to protect its own national security interests.

Some of the most notable tech sanctions against Chinese companies include: preventing a number of companies in China from receiving U.S. technology without special license, and prohibiting U.S. companies from exporting products to those Chinese companies. The sanctions also mean that the U.S. has the authority to control the export of technology that could be used for military purposes in China.

One of the companies that have been hurt because of this sanctions, include Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment and smartphone manufacturer.

The sanctions against Huawei have had a significant impact on the company. And this time, it's fighting back.

In particular, there are a number of technologies that are subject to U.S. tech sanctions against China. They include:

• Semiconductors: These are the essential components of computers, smartphones, and other electronic devices.
• Telecommunications equipment: This includes routers, switches, and other devices that are used to transmit data.
• Software: This includes operating systems, applications, and other software that is used to run computers and other devices.
• Artificial intelligence: This is a rapidly developing field that has the potential to be used for both civilian and military purposes.
• Quantum computing: This is a new technology that has the potential to revolutionize computing.

Due to the sanctions, a number of research and development processes have been significantly slowed down.

Because of this, Huawei has been forced to find alternative sources, and because of that, Huawei was crippled, and had difficulties in competing in the global market.

Huawei has denied any wrongdoing and has said that the sanctions the U.S. is imposing, are politically motivated. The company argued that the sanctions will harm consumers and businesses around the world.

The U.S. doesn't listen.

Because business is business, and business must go on, Huawei Technologies' continuously try to move, even without its foreign partners. And this time, it managed to create a high-end phone that contains more China-made components than any previous models it ever made before.

Huawei calls this phone the 'Huawei Mate 60 Pro'.

The smartphone marks Beijing's advances in the semiconductor sphere, according to reports.

With more than half of the phone's components being developed domestically, China managed to show advances in the sector, since only 2-3 years ago, only a third was domestic.

The Mate 60 Pro is equipped with an advanced chip made by chipmaker SMIC manufactured, which sports a 7nm Kirin 9000s chip.

SMIC's 7nm manufacturing process has a low yield, which hovers below 50%, versus the industry norm of 90% or more. A chip's production yield refers to the number of usable chips from each wafer and affects production costs.

Such a low yield means that Huawei could only ship around 2-4 million chips, which means that it may not be enough for Huawei to regain its former smartphone market dominance.

But still, the advancement is indeed a breakthrough.

This is because both Huawei and SMIC are under U.S. sanctions, which restrict their access to state-of-the-art chipmaking technology and equipment.

Analysts have been speculating over how costly it has been for Huawei to achieve the breakthrough. But the launch of Mate 60 Pro indicates progress in China's quest to reduce its dependence on American tech innovations.

The news was first revealed during during U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit to China.

The sanctions against Huawei are likely to continue, as long as the two countries remain engaged in a number of disputes.

Whereas the U.S. continues to pressure China to change its behavior, and argued that the sanctions are necessary to protect its national security interests, Chinese government has condemned the tech sanctions, calling them unfair and discriminatory.

But what's worth noting here, especially concerning Huawei, is that the sanctions against the company also had a symbolic impact. The sanction sent a message to the world that the U.S. is willing to take action against Chinese companies that it believes are a threat to its national security.

This time, Huawei fights back, and the with the Mate 60 Pro, the company shows that despite sanctions, thriving is only a matter of time.

For comparison, it took SMIC about two years to reach 7nm capability despite the U.S. ban. TSMC, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant that is a partner of Apple, took three years. Samsung, the South Korean titan, took five years to achieve a similar level.

This shows how keen China is, and how far it can progress, despite the sanctions.

This also shows that the U.S. cannot compete with tech manufacturing prowess of China.

With the arrival of the Mate 60 Pro, analysts said that the phone could mark a first step in the company's efforts to come back to rival Apple.

The launch of the phone is also met with more questions.

This is because the Mate 60 Pro uses two products coming from SK Hynix, a South Korean chipmaker. SK Hynix is one of the companies that follow U.S. sanctions, and have stopped supporting Huawei since 2019.

TechInsights, a research organization based in Canada specializing in semiconductors, was the first that took the the Mate 60 Pro apart for analysis, and found that it uses SK Hynix's 12 gigabyte (GB) LPDDR5 chip and 512 GB NAND flash memory chip.

"The significance of the development is that there are restrictions on what SK Hynix can ship to China," said G. Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights.

"Where do these chips come from? The big question is whether any laws were violated."

A SK Hynix spokesperson said that it was made aware of this, and that the company is investigating into the matter.

It's initially suggested that Huawei might had purchased the memory chips from the secondary market and not directly from the manufacturer. It's also possible Huawei might have stockpiled components from SK Hynix before the U.S. export curbs kicked in fully.

The development prompted U.S. congressmen to call on the White House to further restrict technology export sales to Chinese companies.