Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

THE U.S. decision to delay a ban on American technology exports to Huawei for up to 90 days “bears little meaning” and Huawei is fully prepared, said Huawei founder and president Ren Zhengfei yesterday.

Ren made the statement in a group interview with China Media Group in Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, adding Huawei is grateful for U.S. enterprises’ contributions to the company and many of his counselors are from U.S. companies.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said in a statement Monday the temporary exemptions will authorize specific, limited engagement in Huawei’s transactions involving the export, re-export and transfer of items.

Huawei is lodging a lawsuit against the U.S. Government over the previous sanctions and restrictions, Ren said.

What the U.S. Government intends to do is beyond our control and for Huawei, what counts is to make sure the job is properly done, Ren said.

“We received entity control from the U.S. a year ago, but this has no close bearing on U.S. companies. U.S. politicians are the ones to blame, and their actions underestimate our strength,” said Ren.

Ren expressed confidence in Huawei’s 5G competence, saying it will not be affected by the restrictions.

He predicted that no other parties would be able to catch up with the company in 5G in the next two to three years.

He stressed the company will not rashly or narrowly exclude the use of U.S. chips.

He said Huawei makes half of its chips itself, while the other half come from the U.S.

“We can make the same chips like the U.S. counterparts. However, that doesn’t mean we will not buy U.S. chips.”

Huawei maintains mass production capacities for specific key components and the U.S. ban will not result in negative business growth, he said.

“Huawei had made preparations for the extreme situations even before the Chinese Lunar New Year,” he said.

He noted, however, that it would not reject the U.S. supply chain, citing Huawei’s announced purchase of 50 million chips from Qualcomm in 2018.

“We do need to learn from U.S. technology in terms of width and depth. But in the 5G area, Huawei is at the forefront, although it can’t be denied that there is still a huge gap between China and [the] U.S. on the whole,” he noted.

“We sacrifice ourselves and families in the pursuit of a dream to stand on top of the world, which would clash with [the] U.S. sooner or later,” Ren said.

Huawei is a commercial company, and the use of its products is a choice for consumers based on their likes and should not be linked to politics, he said.

German chipmaker and semiconductor manufacturer Infineon will continue to ship “the great majority of products” to Huawei, Xinhua reported yesterday.

Huawei is a commercial company, and the use of its products is a choice for consumers based on their likes and should not be linked to politics, he said.

Ren said he appreciated the support of a large number of U.S. components suppliers over the years, and they are also lobbying for the easing of U.S. government-imposed restrictions.

He said Huawei is also in talks with companies like Google for potential remedy solutions.