The Chinese tech firm moved into chip production last year and was receiving an estimated $30 billion in state funding from the government.  Now the Washington-based Semiconductor Industry Association claims  Huawei had acquired at least two existing plants and was building three others.

The US Commerce Department had added Huawei to its export control list in 2019 over security concerns. The company denies being a security risk.

The idea is that Huawei might be constructing facilities under the names of other companies, to circumvent US government restrictions to purchase American chip-making equipment.

The Semiconductor Industry Association and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In 2019 the Trump administration declared a national economic emergency empowering the US government to ban the technology and services of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security. Huawei was not named in the order, but it came after months of pressure from the US on the company.

The Biden administration has continued its tough stance on China and its tech influence. At the start of the month, Joe Biden signed an executive order prohibiting certain US investments in sensitive technology in China and requiring government notification of funding in other tech sectors.

The order prohibits or restricts certain US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems.

The US produces about 10 per cent of global microchip production “and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 per cent of global production,” the White House noted in a briefing paper.