US attempts to stymie Huawei's business have actually helped the smartphone vendor in one market: its home country of China.

Patriotism, and perhaps some anti-US sentiment, have fueled Huawei's smartphone business in China to the point it achieved a record a 41 to 42 percent share in the third quarter, according to research firms Canalys and Counterpoint.

"There are some retailers in China that promote Huawei's smartphones as the patriotic choice," Mo Jia, a research analyst with Canalys, told PCMag in an email.

Over the years, the US government has generally taken a hostile stance toward on Huawei on claims the Chinese government will secretly use the company's technology for spying purposes. It's why US officials have been urging countries worldwide to steer clear of Huawei's 5G technology.

But in May, the Trump administration took the hostilities further by effectively cutting off Huawei's access to the US technology supply chain, citing the company as a national security threat. The ban sparked Chinese internet users to rally around the Huawei brand, and vow to buy smartphone products from the company over Apple's iPhone.

In the third quarter, Huawei's smartphone business grew by 66 percent year-over-year, according to Canalys. The four other top leading smartphone vendors, including Apple, all posted year-over-year declines in their shipment numbers during the same time period.

"Huawei opened a huge gap between itself and other vendors. It has 25 percent more share than this quarter's runner-up, Vivo," said Canalys analyst Nicole Peng in the report.

Huawei has been the leading smartphone maker in China for about two years with a 23 to 36 share from quarter to quarter, according to Counterpoint. But US attempts to stymie the company's business prompted Huawei to be more aggressive in its home market, said Flora Tang, a research analyst at Counterpoint.

One reason why is because Huawei can no longer pre-install the official Google Play Store apps on the company's Android phones due to the Trump administration's black. In China, most consumers don't use Google apps anyways, because the country's government has banned access to the top US internet companies.

"Since most of the services and applications within Huawei smartphones are highly localized, Chinese consumers are immune to the implications of the US ban. On the contrary, the ban has increased the sense of nationalism towards Huawei," Tang added.

Canalys also pointed to ongoing US-China trade war as another driver of Chinese patriotism around Huawei. The company's founder, Ren Zhengfei, has also been making the rounds with the media.

Apple, on the other hand, ranked as the fifth largest smartphone vendor in China during the third quarter with only a 5.2 percent share. The company's new iPhone 11 series, which launched last month, is expected to help Apple maintain its position in the market. "But it faces a looming challenge," said Canalys analyst Louis Liu, in part because many Chinese vendors are starting to heavily promote 5G-enabled smartphones. "This could steal its thunder," Liu added. The iPhone 11 models, in contrast, have no 5G modem.

Major US carriers and Best Buy have all dropped Huawei phones on pressure from US officials over the spying concerns. However, Huawei denies that it poses any spying threat.