I had a difficult time wrapping my head around this, until just recently (late 2019)...
You posted an article back in February 2018 about li/eontec and zenghoue siting an agreement, this was when Apple passed on the ROFR, there was a statement in the article which li was quoted saying 5G 2020 was the timeframe, at the end of the article a question was posted about Apple being a customer and using liquidmetal with li replying “now is not the right time”...since then this article has been removed, but I finally understood what he was getting at!