Huawei has a back-up plan should the US get in its way.

The Trump administration is causing a lot of stress for China-based phone manufacturers. It renewed ZTE's export ban over trade violations, which could put the company's Android license in jeopardy; plus, the US Justice Department is reportedly investigating Huawei, to determine whether it violated US export sanctions related to Iran.

In an attempt to avoid ZTE's current desperate situation, Huawei has a "worst-case" scenario option: it might start using its own operating system instead, according to South China Morning Post. It claimed Huawei has been developing its own mobile operating system since 2012, when both Huawei and ZTE faced another US investigation.

Huawei has yet to launch this OS, because it doesn't compare to Android in terms of available apps and quality. In response to reports about the mobile operating system, Huawei confirmed it "has no plans" to launch the in-house software in the "foreseeable future". Nevertheless, we wouldn't be surprised if it keeps tinkering away it.

After all, Samsung makes its own Android alternative, called Tizen, though the company has yet to fully ditch Android and likely won't unless something drastic happens. Still, for Huawei, having a secondary OS is a nice reassurance, especially if it found itself in a position where it couldn't sell any new Android phones.