They are behind on lithography machines. LogicFolding seems like one way to overcome that, but for now HiSilicon is 18-24 months behind Apple and Qualcomm in performance. I will believe the promised gains when they are delivered, and I'm hopeful that a Chinese company figures out how to make EUVs. In a sense being only behind by 18-24 months is a win for Huawei and China, Biden's goal was to keep Huawei at 2014 levels. In another Huawei phones and tablets still lose on performance in comparisons and they aren't cheap. Xiaomi has also contracted TSMC to make its Xring chip, not SMIC. Of course cutting edge nodes are not necessary for all applications, certainly not for military applications which is the alleged reason behind the US ban. My laptop uses NVMe by YMTC and I wouldn't tell the difference or care if it were 14nm or 28 nm or otherwise.