Huawei's Founder Denies Spying, Praises Trump

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, broke years of public silence to dismiss U.S. accusations and to praise Donald Trump for his tax cuts, according to Bloomberg.

Ren denied suggestions that Huawei aids the Chinese government in espionage, saying it has no regular contact with Beijing, as his technology empire faces its biggest crisis in its three decades of existence. He said he’ll take a wait-and-see approach as to whether Trump will intervene on behalf of Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou.

“I love my country, I support the Communist Party. But I will not do anything to harm the world,“ the 74-year-old said in a roundtable briefing, only his third formal chat with foreign reporters. “I don’t see a close connection between my personal political beliefs and the businesses of Huawei.“

Ren said he would decline any request from Beijing for sensitive information on its clients and stressed the potential for cooperation with the U.S. and Trump’s administration. And he played down Huawei’s role in current tensions between Washington and Beijing, which have rattled investors and corporations worldwide.

“Huawei is only a sesame seed in the trade conflict between China and the U.S.,“ Ren said from the company’s campus in Shenzhen. “Trump is a great president. He dares to massively cut taxes, which will benefit business. But you have to treat well the companies and countries so that they are willing to invest in the U.S. and the government will be able to collect enough tax.“

Despite the potential impact on his business, Ren said he was confident Huawei’s revenue would grow to $125 billion in 2019 from more than $100 billion last year. “Huawei is not a public company, we don’t need a beautiful earnings report,“ Ren said. “If they don’t want Huawei to be in some markets, we can scale down a bit. As long as we can survive and feed our employees, there’s a future for us.“