Hello, This is Bien Perez from the South China Morning Post’s Technology desk, with a wrap of our leading stories this week.
In April of 2016, Huawei Technologies founder Ren Zhengfei became an internet sensation in China after a photograph of him waiting in line for a taxi outside Shanghai’s Hongqiao International Airport went viral.
The nation’s social media users expressed their approval of the image, which showed the septuagenarian without any assistant or chauffeur waiting for him. They said it conveyed the down-to-earth nature of Ren, who founded an enterprise that developed into China’s biggest technology company and the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier.
That image has been reinforced by Ren, 75, as he continues to lead Huawei with the same self-effacing approach at a time when the company is caught in the middle of a protracted tech and trade war between China and the United States.
“I only play a symbolic role, like a clay idol in a temple,” Ren said in an interview with the Post. “Without it, the temple would look empty. But in truth, the idol doesn’t really do anything … Whether or not I’m at Huawei has no real impact.”
It is his hope that, in time, he will soon be forgotten. “I’m just an old man. What’s the point of remembering me? People should think more about the future and the world,” Ren said. “My biggest wish is to drink coffee in a cafe unnoticed.”
