Huawei is working on its own smartphone operating system, to use if the US government blocks it’s access to the Android OS, people familiar with the matter told the South China Morning Post.

The news comes after the US blocked rival ZTE from buying components in the US, and Huawei is reportedly also under investigation by the US justice department.

Huawei started building its own operating system after a US investigation into Huawei and ZTE in 2012, one of the paper’s sources said.

Huawei also has its own OS for tablets and personal computers, the person said.

The plan was initiated by Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, and the company has never given up on it as it is seen as a strategic investment to prepare for “worst-case scenarios”, according to the sources.

The company has not released the OS because it is not as good as Android, and the system does not have many third-party apps developed for it, one source said.

A Huawei spokesman said the company “has no plans to release its own OS in the foreseeable future”. I’t’s focused on products powered by Android OS and adopts “an open attitude towards mobile OS”, the spokesman said

SOURCE: Telecom Paper