Tech war: Huawei founder Ren is betting on the firm’s alternative ecosystems to combat impact of US sanctions
- HarmonyOS is a mobile and Internet-of-Things operating system, while EulerOS is a Linux distribution designed for enterprise servers
- Ren’s remarks have surfaced amid a wave of patriotic fervour over Huawei’s recent launch of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone
“Huawei will face tougher days under US sanctions and crackdowns, but Huawei will also be more prosperous,” Ren said in a July conversation with Liu Yadong, head of the Journalism School at Nankai University, and former editor-in-chief of the state newspaper Science and Technology Daily.
The transcript of the conversation was published on Liu’s personal WeChat blog on Thursday and widely cited by Chinese media.
Huawei will continue to “invest tens of thousands of manpower and billions of capital each year” in developing HarmonyOS and EulerOS, even though the codes for the two operating systems are open source, Ren said.
In China, over 30 operating systems are based on HarmonyOS, covering smartphones, tablets and other industry devices with 600 million users, according to Ren.
The software development has engaged various industry partners, who will also migrate to Huawei’s cloud service, which will help expand the company’s own ecosystem, Ren said.
Even though the US sanctions have been a challenge, Ren said that Huawei and China should also learn from the US, especially when it comes to supporting basic research and grooming talent.
“We should still learn from advanced American culture. We never said we wanted to ‘beat down the US’,” Ren said. “America has a lot of ‘soil’ to attract talent, and China should have the same for high-level talent.”