"As a company we think [the US blacklisting] is unfair treatment to Huawei because the allegations are not based on facts," Mr Hu said, speaking at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2019 on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Hu has occupied the company's rotating chairmanship and is currently deputy chairman. He said the US government's actions had "not significantly affected" the overall supply of services and products.

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After the company was put on the blacklist, which affected the updates Google could provide to some of Huawei's Android-powered phones, there was an immediate 40 per cent fall in international handset sales.

"Generally speaking ... our business operations are normal even though there has been some fluctuation the overall situation is business as usual," Mr Hu said.

"Huawei’s 5G will not be affected at all - for the contracts we have already signed and the contracts we are going to sign we have [the capability] of delivering to our customers."

The Chinese giant currently has 50 commercial 5G contracts signed, including 28 in Europe, 11 in the Middle East, six in Asia Pacific, four in Latin America and one in Africa. He declined to say how many of these were signed before Huawei was put on the US blacklist.

There needs to be an objective and fact-based approach ... instead of using ideology to discriminate against any vendor.

Huawei's Ken Hu

The US and Australian authorities have been among those urging the UK government to ban Huawei from being involved in rolling out 5G on the basis of security concerns.

"Right now, speaking of 5G cybersecuity, the mainstream position of the European Union and member states is that technology is technology. There needs to be an objective and fact-based approach ... instead of using ideology to discriminate against any vendor," he said.

Likening 5G to running a marathon, Mr Hu said European telcos recognised the company’s "leadership" in 5G and understood there would be extra deployment costs and delays of up to two years if Huawei was blocked.

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"As you might know... interference with the 5G business of Huawei has been there for a long time. It’s not only happening with the adding to [the blacklist] which happened in May.

"Looking into the future we will remain a firm supporter of the Android operating system. We hope we can continue to participate and continue to use it but ... if we cannot we have to find alternative solutions. If the issue with American suppliers gets resolved we will continue to buy from them.

The Chinese giant's Australia chairman John Lord and chief executive Hudson Lieu are hoping to meet with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher in coming months to pressure the government to overturn the ban.

Mr Hu said that "a lot of countries" had started deploying their 5G networks with dozens of terminals and devices being rolled out.

"All over the world a lot of local carriers will choose us as partners," Mr Hu said. "Our investment is of a very massive scale. We have invested $US4 billion. If you look at 5G patents the number taken by Huawei is 20 per cent of patents for the whole industry. Based on our research and development leadership ... the results of Huawei we are so much ahead of others."

Jennifer Duke attended Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2019 as a guest of Huawei.