Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is kicking off a three- to five-year overhaul to create an “iron army” that can help it survive its U.S. technology ban.

The strategy was detailed in an internal memo written by Huawei Chief Executive Officer Ren Zhengfei, who warned that U.S. sanctions threaten the company’s smartphone business, according to a report today by Bloomberg.

Zhengfei said in the memo that the company faced a “painful long march,” a reference to the military retreat by the Communist Party of China prior to World War II. “We have to complete an overhaul in harsh and difficult conditions, creating an invincible iron army that can help us achieve victory,” Zhengfei is quoted as writing.

That Huawei would be undertaking an overhaul does not come as a surprise in light of on-again, off-again and possibly on-again U.S. sanctions. The initial sanctions banned Huawei from selling its products to U.S. government departments, then were subsequently increased to a ban on Huawei obtaining U.S. technology.

The second ban was by far the worse for the company, since it restricted its ability to obtain U.S. technology used in its phones. That included chips made by Qualcomm Inc. and Google LLC’s Android operating system.

That ban remains in question. President Donald Trump said in May that it would be on the table as part of U.S.-China trade talks, but so far those talks have failed to deliver. “We’re not going to do business with Huawei,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “That doesn’t mean we won’t agree to something if and when we make a trade deal, but we’re not going to be doing business with Huawei.”

The sales ban reprieve that would allow American companies to do some business with Huawei, though for only widely available products, is in doubt as well. The White House is holding off on a decision to issue export licenses in response to a Chinese ban on the import of U.S. farm goods.

The next flashpoint in the Huawei story comes Aug. 19, when the initial 90-day exemption granted in May from export restrictions is set to expire. Analysts believe that there’s little chance of the exemption being extended.

News of the plan comes after Huawei last week revealed HarmonyOS, known in China as HongmengOS, its own operating system that could be used by used by the company instead of Android.

The first product running HarmonyOS was a smart television set from Huawei subsidiary Honor launched on Saturday. Although it’s difficult to compare to western products because Chinese user-interfaces are significantly different from those in the west, some of the first reviews have been positive.

Image: CCTV