Why low profile Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has grabbed the microphone to defend telecoms giant
- As pressure has increased on Huawei over US allegations of intellectual property theft and evasion of sanctions, Ren has tried to regain control of narrative
Ren Zhengfei was never really one for the limelight.
Before his daughter and Huawei Technologies deputy chairwoman Sabrina Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in December at the request of the US government, the 74-year-old founder of the company had never given a television interview. Nor did he often speak to journalists.
Now he is everywhere. US network CBS News aired its interview with Ren on Tuesday, in which the Chinese entrepreneur pledged that Huawei will not share data with the Chinese government. The day before, BBC News broadcast its interview with Ren, during which the ex-soldier described the arrest of his daughter as politically motivated. He also said there is no way the US can crush Huawei.
In the past month, Ren has spoken with reporters from both foreign and domestic media organisations. He gave his first-ever TV interview to state broadcaster China Central Television. He has maintained a consistent message: Huawei does not spy for the Chinese government and will not share data with the Chinese government. Before this, the last time he spoke to international media was in 2015.
Yet in the first month since the crisis erupted with Meng’s detention on December 1, Ren was content to allow his lieutenants do the talking. Huawei's rotating chairman Ken Hu Houkun held a round table on December 18 with journalists from 14 international media organisations at the company’s new campus in Dongguan. Chairman Liang Hua spoke to a group of mainland media in Huawei’s Shenzhen headquarters a week later.