Huawei founder and chief executive officer Ren Zhengfei said the company will not back down over U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to ban Huawei from the US market. The ban took effect on Wednesday, May 15.
Trump’s executive order escalated an already tense trade war between the U.S. and China.
Zhengfei, who made the comments in an interview with a group of Japanese journalists on Saturday, May 18, said Huawei will reduce its reliance on U.S. components. “We have already been preparing for this,” Zhengfei said.
Huawei Largely Relies on Foreign Suppliers
Huawei, a global leader in 5G technology, still relies on foreign suppliers for components. According to The Nikkei business daily, the Chinese telecom giant purchases around $67 billion worth of components every year, with about $11 billion coming from U.S. suppliers.
Ren’s Huawei is facing a growing backlash overseas. His army background has fueled suspicions that his company has links with the Chinese military and intelligence services. Thus, some countries fear that the Chinese government uses Huawei to spy on other companies and countries.
Several reports from last week also revealed that the Trump administration is encouraging allies not to allow China a role in building next-generation 5G mobile networks.
Ren has come out to defend Huawei, saying “we have not done anything which violates the law”. The elusive executive also said the U.S. pressure won’t have much impact on Huawei.
In 1987, Zhengfei started Huawei with a start-up capital of $5,000. Now the tech giant operates in 170 countries and employs 190,000 employees. It reported a revenue of more than $100 billion in 2018.
Ren reiterated that Huawei won’t bow to U.S. pressure. “We will not change our management at the request of the US or accept monitoring, as ZTE has done,” he said, as quoted by The Nikkei, referring to fellow Chinese telecoms giant ZTE which was also targeted by Washington.
