Huawei staff punished for tweeting from iPhone
A sales assistant looks at her mobile phone as she waits for customers behind at a Huawei booth in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Chinese companies have been encouraging the use of Huawei products. Reuters
By Jung Min-ho
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has punished employees for using an iPhone to send New Year greetings.
Each of two Huawei employees responsible for the tweet had their salaries cut by more than $700 a month and were demoted one level.
The message, posted on the company's official Twitter account on New Year's Eve wished followers a happy New Year while displaying the tag “Twitter for iPhone,” a flagship product of American rival Apple.
The tweet was removed later, but screenshots of the blunder spread across social media.
“The traitor has revealed himself,” a netizen reportedly quipped on microblog Weibo, in a comment “liked” by hundreds of others.
The punishment was handed out after companies in China recently began boycotting Apple products in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver last month.
Some companies
threatened employees with fines, confiscation of Apple devices and even contract termination.