Exclusive | Huawei founder urges employees not to harbour anti-US sentiments
Ren Zhengfei, the founder and chief executive of telecoms equipment maker Huawei, says employees must possess a “sense of crisis” amid simmering tensions between China and the US
The founder of Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturing giant that the US has deemed a national security risk, has urged employees not to harbour any anti-US sentiments amid simmering tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei told employees to “never let anti-US sentiment guide our work”, according to a memo addressed to several departments, dated April 8 and seen by the South China Morning Post.
He also urged employees not to harbour nationalist sentiments, and to recognise the “strengths of the US, see the gap [between Huawei and its US competitors] and learn from them”.
The memo was circulated to staff weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose some US$150 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, but before the US imposed a seven-year export ban on ZTE Corp for violating sanctions on selling telecoms equipment to Iran and North Korea.
The ban has threatened the survival of Huawei’s cross-town rival in Shenzhen and became a focal point in the US-China trade talks.
Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier and China’s biggest smartphone brand, was also reported to be under investigation for violating US trade sanctions on Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources.
Huawei declined to comment on the memo.
The memo from Ren has come as a surprise because of the setbacks faced by Huawei in its efforts to expand operations in the US. Privately held Huawei has seen its network equipment and smartphone sales flourish over the past few decades across the world.
The US, however, remains concerned about Huawei’s ties with the Chinese government. It is a major security issue that has stymied efforts by the company and Hong Kong-listed ZTE to sell network equipment to large US telecommunications carriers.