CES 2019: Chinese firms and US government fail to attend tech conference in Las Vegas

Workers serve beverages from an ice sculpture during CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2018 (AFP/Getty Images)

Trade tensions between the US and China and the ongoing government shutdown have led to some key attendees missing out on the world's biggest technology trade show.

CES 2019, taking place this week in Las Vegas, has served as a showcase for China's burgeoning tech industry in recent years, with 2018's keynote delivered by one of Huawei's top executives.

Richard Yu, CEO of the Chinese firm's consumer business group, originally planned to show off the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone but took the opportunity to criticise US carrier AT&T's sudden decision to pull out of a deal to sell the phone.

The decision had apparently come as a result of espionage concerns raised by the US government, which linked Huawei to Chinese government surveillance.

"We win the trust of the Chinese carriers, we win the trust of the emerging markets... and also we win the trust of the gloabl carriers, all the European and Japanese carriers," Mr Yu said.

"We are serving over 70 million people worldwide. We've proven our quality, we've proven our privacy and security protection."

This year there will be no keynotes from any Chinese tech executives, and figures from the South China Morning Post reveal there will be 20 per cent fewer Chinese exhibitors than 2018.

Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu have downsized their presence since last year, while Xiaomi has decided to skip the show entirely.

Other notable absences from CES 2019 include 10 US federal government officials as a result of the ongoing US government shutdown.

They include speakers from the Department for Homeland Security, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Because of the government shutdown, some of our scheduled government speakers at CES 2019 have alerted us that they must cancel their travel to the show," said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association.

"As a result, some of our scheduled CES 2019 programming and speakers will change. We urge attendees who planned to hear US federal government speakers to check the sessions on the website to ensure those individuals are still speaking."