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Huawei’s boss has long expressed admiration for Apple
Despite growing US-China tension, Ren Zhengfei remains a staunch fan of American rival
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
As the US wages what’s effectively a tech war against China, one would think that Huawei would support retaliation against its strongest American rivals. It turns out, though, that the Chinese tech giant’s CEO has a history of advocating just the opposite.
The most recent example came during an interview with Bloomberg when Ren Zhengfei said he would oppose any plans to ban Apple products in China. Referring to Apple his teacher, Ren said, “As a student, why go against my teacher? Never.”
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“We will never do anything to harm the interests of our customers,” he said, according to a transcript supplied by Huawei. “Apple is an example we look up to in terms of privacy protection. We will learn from Apple.”
In 2016, Apple fought a court order to help the FBI access the iPhone of a gunman involved in a 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Huawei has argued that, like Apple, it won’t be compelled by China to hack into phones. US legal experts, however, are skeptical of Huawei’s claim. They say it would be difficult for any Chinese company to resist orders from the central government.
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Ren suggested he may learn from Apple in other ways, though. During that same event in January, the Huawei CEO said he should reduce his private shares in the company closer to what Steve Jobs held at Apple. The call to learn from Apple and other US tech titans is a common refrain from Ren.
Last year, when President Trump announced that he was planning import taxes on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, Ren sent out a memo to his staff. He asked employees to “never let anti-US sentiment guide our work” and urged them to learn from the strengths of US rivals.
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