They're not really contradictory. From the economist article:

>Some of the home-grown chips that Huawei is using are thought to cost several times more than their foreign equivalents and remain in short supply. But the fact that Huawei has been able to get round the sanctions at all in such a short time is a surprise. [...]

>China is still years behind the West in chipmaking. Sanctions on high-powered semiconductors have raised costs and slowed the uptake of AI for thousands of firms, as intended. Hubble’s investments are still far from replacing Western lithography machines and other components. But if Huawei was a worry when America first declared war, it is a bigger one now

They're not claiming that Hauwei/China caught up to the west in terms of semiconductor technology, or even that the ones they can produce are without problems.