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Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei Talks Family, Business, and US-China Relations
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Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei Talks Family, Business, and US-China Relations

Liu Jingfeng and Su Qi
Ran Caijing, 2019
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Huawei is one of Chinas’s most influential tech companies. Accusations that Huawei could be spying for the Chinese government, and thus represents a threat to US national security, have thrown the company and its founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei into the spotlight. Ren’s response to the crisis has been calm and dignified. Who is the man behind the controversial company? For this portrait, Ran Caijing’s team of reporters dug up Ren’s scant keynotes and media interviews from the past.

Summary

When US authorities put Huawei on a blacklist that barred US firms from doing business with the Chinese tech giant, CEO Ren Zhengfei responded calmly.

In mid-May 2019, the US Department of Commerce added Huawei and its 68 affiliates to the Entity List, which restricts the sale or transfer of US technologies to Huawei – essentially barring Huawei from doing business with US companies. Days later, Google suspended Huawei’s Android license, which prevents Huawei devices from accessing Gmail, YouTube and the Google Play app store.

Although Huawei has never seen a crisis of this magnitude since its establishment in 1987, Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of the company, has remained composed and optimistic in his public appearances. In an interview on May, 21, 2019, he ascertained that US government decisions were out of his hands and that the best the company could do was to focus on the work at hand. He gave thanks to Huawei’s American business partners, and added that Huawei would resume purchasing components from US companies if the US government allowed it. Addressing Chinese citizens who reacted with anger to the US decision, Ren cautioned that...

About the Authors

Liu Jingfeng and Su Qi are writers for Ran Caijing, a WeChat official account that offers business reports and analysis.

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