Zara Larsson had signed a deal last year with Huawei to promote its smartphones.
Swedish singer Zara Larsson on Tuesday announced the end of her collaboration with Chinese tech giant Huawei as she felt hindered by the collaboration to take a stand on what China ‘was doing’ in regards to the Uighurs, TikTok and Hong Kong.
Larsson had signed a deal last year with Huawei to promote its smartphones. The 22-year-old singer, in an interview with broadcaster TV4, said that she has ended her contract with the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world, stating that China "is not a nice state” and she did not want to support what the country “was doing.”
“We know that the Chinese state is not a nice state,” she said, adding that she would have liked to take a stand on the Uygurs, TikTok or Hong Kong but that she felt “hindered” by her collaboration with Huawei, reported The Local.
“If I now look back it wasn't, from a professional but also a personal perspective, the smartest deal I've done," Larsson said.
Huawei’s Swedish branch, in its statement, said that the deal with the artist had only been for a set amount of time and had ended last year “as agreed”.
“We appreciated the collaboration with Zara. Her energy, values and driving force to walk her own path,” the statement read.
Huawei also said that it is a global company and while it follows local laws and regulations, it does not take instructions from any government authority.