Hello and Welcome to the Chinese city of Shenzhen, home of the telecommunication giant Huawei
to talk to the Chairman of the Board Liang Hua
Is's in the midst of a bitter trade war between China and the US, which has banned all governmental agencies to use Huawei equipment
on suspicion of espionage
And leaders from all arond the world are openly discussing their concerns about the trustworthiness of Huawei
as they are building their 5G networks
Huawei is in the
midst of a bitter trade war between China and the US. Are you running scared by the
end of this year? We're not concerned. The US government's decision
to add Huawei to the Entity List has just created a lot of extra work for us: We have
had to redesign some of our products and make sure our supply chain can continue to deliver
products to our customers in a timely manner. Despite all the pressure, our top priority
is to ensure survival. Your founder Mr. Ren said several months ago
that Huawei is kind of like a plane that is heavily hit. What do you say on this picture
and do you agree to that? Yes, I agree with him. The airplane shown
in this picture kept flying even after being riddled with bullet holes, but it finally
made its way back home. Huawei is like that airplane when we were added to the Entity
List by the US government. To land safely, we have to solve many problems and patch up
these holes one by one, like redesigning some of our products and ensuring supply continuity.
Now China said "We in China only want equipment produced by Chinese companies" as a response
to the trade war from the United States. Is this the right response in a globalized world?
I'm asking you as a business person. At Huawei, we firmly support globalization,
especially for our supply chain. If the US government allows American companies
to resume supply to Huawei, we will still buy US components to build our supply chain.
We are committed to globalization, and this commitment is never going to change. We don't
want to close ourselves off for the sake of pursuing independent innovation and self-sufficiency.
If we only depend on ourselves, we will not be able to compete in the future global market.
Really, keep working closely with the United States and share components and work closely
together in the future? What I meant is that Huawei will still embrace
globalization, no matter whether it is to work with companies from the US, Europe, , Germany,
Japan, or South Korea. It is not up to Huawei whether we can use US products; instead, it's
the US government that is banning US companies from supplying Huawei. If the US government
still allows it, we'll still purchase from them.
How important is the US market? At this point, we barely have any sales in
the US due to restrictions from the US government. Our products and services are very competitive,
and we are willing to provide our communications products to US carriers, and serve US citizens
with our advanced communications technologies, and high-quality products and services through
those carriers. Now that our business presence in the US is
virtually non-existent, we can focus our efforts on the countries where our products and services
are welcomed. More and more governments openly expressed
their concerns when it comes to trustworthiness and espionage regarding Huawei, especially
when they are talking about building the 5G network there. Can you talk a little bit more
about these concerns and what you make of them?
As for 5G, the world is now attaching more and more importance to it, thanks to the US's
hype. The truth is that Huawei is leading in 5G because we began investing heavily early
on, thus giving us competitive advantages in 5G technologies, products, and solutions.
Germany has proposed that higher standards should be set and these standards should apply
to all players in the entire industry to ensure cyber security. I believe the best approach
to this should be to develop cyber security management methods, rules, and measures based
on facts and evidence. We can talk about Germany in this specific
role, but at the moment I just want to come back to the concerns for a second. People
all around the world say how we can trust a company which can be forced by law to deliver
information to the state. What do you make of these thoughts?
First, Huawei complies with all local laws and regulations in every country or region
where we operate. Second, Huawei only provides equipment, and
does not participate in network operations, so we have no access to user data. I believe
different countries and regions are capable of managing their cyber security and data
protection concerns on their own. Third, Huawei has made cyber security and
privacy protection our top priorities. They are regarded as the foundation of our business
operations throughout the entire process, from product design and manufacturing to service
provisioning. Please allow me to quote one of the laws in
China. Maybe they don't take place in Germany or other countries. Let me quote this very
law: "Any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with the state intelligence
work in accordance with the law." So, can the state of China force you to give information
which you would be able to collect, for example, in Germany?
Regarding China's National Intelligence Law, many Chinese officials have already explained
their stance. At the Munich Security Conference, Yang Jiechi, Director of the Office of the
Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, made it clear that China has no
law requiring companies to install backdoors or collect foreign intelligence.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang then reiterated this position at a press conference following
a session of the National People's Congress this year. He stated, "This is against Chinese
law, and is not the Chinese way of doing things. We don't do such things now, and will never
do them in the future." These are how Chinese officials interpret
China's National Intelligence Law. Huawei has never received any such requests during
our operations over the past 30 years, and even if we received such requests in the future,
we would not agree to them. Without any requests, we won’t do anything.
You talked quite positively about Germany. Let's put it differently, how important is
our Chancellor Angela Merkel for you as a leader and how important are the signals she
sends out when it comes to 5G? Chancellor Merkel's decisions on 5G are based
on Germany's national interests and development needs for the future.
Under Chancellor Merkel's leadership, the German government's approach to 5G security
standards does not focus on a supplier's country of origin, but treats all suppliers equally.
This approach is good for the development of German communications infrastructure.
Do you consider Angela Merkel being a supporter of 5G?
I can only tell you what I read in the news. There have been extensive discussions about
the development of 5G infrastructure within the German government. These discussions are
based on facts and evidence, which are good for Germany to develop its next-generation
infrastructure. .
The problems of Huawei are not just abroad when it comes to trustworthiness. You're also
in the midst of a tough public relation battle within China over the wrongful imprisonment
of a former employee for 251 days. You reported him for a crime without providing sufficient
evidence. Where are we with this case? Huawei has released an official statement
about this matter. I have no further comments at this point.
The news is also really dominated by reports of Hong Kong on one hand and also of Uyghurs.
That's hurting your business as well, isn't it?
There have been many of these sorts of reports, but we will remain focused on our own business
and development. We are focused on patching up the holes in our airplane like I just described
and ensuring timely delivery to our customers. Huawei is kind of leading when it comes to
facial recognition and other technologies. Is the company responsible for the possible
misuse of the products? Or do you say we just produce the products and leave it to the people
who use them? As a technology company, we focus on how basic
research and technological applications can benefit humanity as technologies continue
to evolve. With any emerging technology, there will be debates.For example, facial recognition
can be applied in many ways to improve social governance and productivity.
In terms of security and trustworthiness, we have made cyber security and privacy protection
our top priorities. We comply with all local standards, rules, and laws on cyber security
and privacy protection in every country and region where we operate.
In addition, as we enter the digital and intelligent world, digital sovereignty will become increasingly
important. It will be as important to a nation as its geographical sovereignty. All countries
should pay close attention to establishing their own digital sovereignty.
We have some other big elections coming next year in the United States. What do you wish
for? We don't pay much attention to elections in
other countries, because many of these elections happen every four years. Elections in other
countries won't have much impact on our business strategies or operations.
President Trump plays an outstanding role when it comes to the trade war between the
United States and China. Don't you think so? Huawei has virtually no business presence
or sales in the US. We used to buy some products from the US, but now the US government has
cut off this supply. The trade disputes and the trade war between these two countries
have no impact on our actual business operations. This is not important for Huawei?
What happened with the Trump administration has some impact on us. But we are not very
concerned about which government will be elected in the future.
One last question, DW, the broadcast network I'm working for is banned in China. Wouldn't
it be great if people could watch this interview on Huawei mobile phones, for example?
Yes, that would be great.