According to China’s Global Times, Flex kept the Huawei assets in its factory in the southern city of Zhuhai after Washington added Huawei to an Entity List on May 16 that prohibits US firms from doing business with it, according to the report.

Flex, which is dual-headquartered in the United States and Singapore manufactures smartphone and 5G base stations for Huawei.

Guo Fulin, president of international media affairs at Huawei, told Reuters the company has got back about half of the goods after negotiations with Flex last month and is still trying to get back the rest

“We cannot understand why their Chinese factory seized our goods. This is an over-interpretation of the ban”, he said.

The Chinese newspaper said Flex was culled from Huawei’s supply chain after the incident that had “angered Huawei”, but that has not been confirmed.