Bangkok--3 Dec--Francom Asia
"They may as well keep us in the Entity List forever because we'll be fine without them," said Mr. Ren Zhengfei
Huawei Technologies, the world's biggest telecommunication equipment maker and No. 2 smartphone manufacturer, recently declared it has moved on from the Trump administration's continuous attacks against it. "We don't expect the U.S. to remove Huawei from the entity list," declared Mr. Ren Zhengfei, Huawei CEO and founder, during a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. "They may as well keep us there forever because we'll be fine without them," he added.
In May, the company was added to the US Entity List, effectively banning it from doing business with the U.S. companies, a political move Huawei said had little impact on the company's business. After the blacklist, Mr. Ren himself predicted that it would cause Huawei USD30 billion revenue loss. But his estimation was proven wrong when the company announced that its revenue of the first nine months was up 24 percent. In September, Mr. Andy Purdy, Chief Security Officer of Huawei Technologies USA, said the company last year spent USD11 billion buying American-made components. Without those purchases, U.S. firms are going to lose.
Despite the ban, Mr. Ren insisted that he never hated the United States and the company will never close its door to any country, for the sake of world's progress and fast digital development. As a firm believer in "open collaboration for shared success," Mr. Ren in September announced the determination to sell Huawei's 5G technology, including its know-how and patents, to U.S. companies. In this interview, he said his offer is sincere and still on the table, but for now there are no takers.
When asked about the US ungrounded allegations that Huawei could be legally bound to provide customer data to Chinese government upon request, Mr. Ren insisted that, along with almost 200,000 employees around the world, he would deny such requests. The CEO confirmed that the company has extremely strict measures against employees' violations and anyone who did such a thing would be severely punished.
Mr. Ren, along with other senior executives, has repeatedly denied the spying accusations from the US Administration, believing they are nothing but politically-motivated attacks wishing to sabotage its leadership in 5G technology. Huawei nonetheless forged ahead by securing over fifty commercial 5G contracts globally. The company continued to develop breakthrough innovations in the area of 5G, Artificial Intelligence and mobile technology. Huawei is among the world's largest investors in R&D, with a plan to invest USD100 billion in innovation and R&D centers in the next five years.
Reference: https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-founder-says-chinese-giant-doesnt-need-the-u-s-11573042649
https://www.huawei.com/en/facts/voices-of-huawei/Huawei-Founder-Says-Chinese-Giant-Doesnt-Need-the-US