Huawei chairman Guo Ping shrugs off threat of US ban as company unveils foldable phone
- Guo says such a move is not necessary but that the company can succeed without the US market
- Company also introduced new foldable phone on eve of the Mobile World Congress trade fair
Huawei’s rotating chairman on Sunday shrugged off the risk that US President Donald Trump could issue an executive order banning the Chinese telecom giant, saying the company could succeed without the US market.
Guo Ping said such an order “is not necessary and should not be released” but if issued would have little impact on Huawei, which has become the leading supplier of the backbone equipment for wireless mobile networks worldwide.
“In 2018 Huawei had revenues of over 100 billion dollars. The share of US in this is really small. That means the US market can be ignored by us,” he told a news conference in Barcelona on the eve of the four-day Mobile World Congress trade fair, where Huawei has sent a large delegation, including its media-shy founder, Ren Zhengfei.
The trade fair, which officially opens on Monday and is expected to draw some 100,000 people from across the telecoms industry, comes as the United States has stepped up pressure on its allies to block Huawei from building its 5G networks.
US officials suspect that Beijing could use the Shenzhen-based Huawei’s products to spy on Western governments, and the company’s presence in the United States has already been severely restricted.