Huawei spokesman says cash is a mark of recognition for work in face of pressure after US blacklisted Chinese company.

China telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies said on Tuesday it will hand out two billion yuan ($286m) in cash rewards to staff working to help it weather a United States trade blacklisting.

The world’s largest telecommunications equipment provider said it has tried to find alternatives to US hardware after the US all but banned it in May from doing business with American firms, disrupting its ability to source key parts.

The cash bonus is a mark of recognition for work in the face of US pressure, Huawei’s human resources department said in a notice to staff seen by Reuters News Agency. It will also double pay this month for almost all of its 190,000 workers, a company spokesman said.

The cash rewards will likely go to research-and-development teams and those working to shift the company’s supply chains away from the US.

Details of Huawei’s plan were first reported by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

Many in the US government believe Huawei’s equipment, particularly its 5G networks, pose a security risk because of the company’s allegedly close ties to the Chinese government.

Huawei has denied that the Chinese government plays any role in its operations.

Although granted reprieves from much of the US exclusion, Huawei had been working to find alternatives after it witnessed the crippling effect of US sanctions on its smaller Chinese rival ZTE Corp in early 2017.

The company is also the world’s second-largest maker of smartphones and a surge in shipments of devices helped it to report a 27 percent rise in third-quarter revenue last month.