Huawei Founder Claims that US Exaggerates China Threat

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said the US may further escalate its trade sanctions against the company. He insisted the impact on its business won’t be significant as it is now more prepared than ever. Ren said that being placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 hasn’t hurt the company much.

“Since we didn’t have a sense of security regarding the US ten years ago, we spent hundreds of billions of dollars to come up with a backup plan, which is why we withstood the first round of attacks. We are now more confident we can survive further attacks.“ He added that the US shouldn’t be too concerned about Huawei or China’s position in the world.

Chinese education is still designed for the industrial age, with a focus on training engineers, Ren said. “AI can’t grow rapidly in China, as it requires a lot of mathematicians, supercomputers, super connectivity and super storage. In those areas, China is still starting in terms of the size technology. The US is overly concerned. It has gotten used to being the world’s number one, and it can’t necessarily be the best at everything it does.“

Ren suggested the world needs to conduct serious study into how AI can be used to benefit society, and agreed rules must be developed on what can and cannot be studied. If both the US and Chinese governments want to see rapid AI growth, he said they should be investing more in basic education and research.

Regarding concerns about the company’s huge investment in AI, Ren said its research covers so-called “weak“ AI with clear boundaries set where the technology can be applied. Its focus is on sectors including autonomous driving, data mining and biotech. “The advancement of AI can create enormous wealth. People say many will lose their jobs as more wealth is created. Addressing the widening income gap is a social issue not a technology issue.