Chinese vendor Huawei believes that it will be extremely unlikely that the new U.S. administration would lift the current restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump, Huawei’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, said at a media roundtable.
“I think it’s very unlikely that the U.S. will remove us from the Entity List. I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’s extremely unlikely. We basically aren’t considering it a possibility,” Ren said, adding that Huawei remains committed to producing good products and solutions. “Right now, we just want to work harder and keep looking for new opportunities for survival. I am even more confident about Huawei’s survival than I was, because we have more ways to overcome those challenges. Our sales revenue and profits in 2020 were higher compared to last year,” he added.
Ren also said that Huawei still expects to be able to buy a lot of U.S components, parts, and machinery so that U.S. companies can also develop with the Chinese economy.
The executive also questioned if the US’ aggressive stance against China’s companies was beneficial to its own economy and businesses.
“Some U.S. politicians have concerns over the potential impact 5G may have on a global scale. As I once pledged, we would transfer all of our 5G technologies, not just licensing production to others. As long as the U.S. asks for it, we would transfer everything from the source programs and source code to all the hardware design secrets and know-how, and even the chip design. I meant what I said, but no U.S. company has come forward,” he added.
In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.
Under the order, Huawei needs a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers. At that time, firms including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Microm had halted shipments due to the restrictions. Huawei relies heavily on computer chips imported from U.S. companies.
The U.S government included Huawei in the Department of Commerce’s Entity List due to security concerns, as Washington believes that the Chinese government uses Huawei’s equipment for spying purposes. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been also lobbying allies in Europe and elsewhere to block mobile carriers from using Huawei’s equipment in 5G networks. Huawei has repeatedly denied these allegations.
