Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei has called for a reset in relations between the US and the Chinese tech giant. Speaking to international media in China for the first time in more than a year, Ren expressed willingness to speak with President Biden and said he hoped for an “open policy” from the new administration.
“I would welcome such phone calls and the message is around joint development and shared success,” said Ren. “The US wants to have economic growth and China wants to have economic growth as well.”
“If Huawei’s production capacity can be expanded, that would mean more opportunities for US companies to supply too,” added Ren. “I believe that’s going to be mutually beneficial. I believe that (the) new administration would bear in mind such business interests as they are about to decide their new policy. We still hope that we can buy large volumes of American materials, components and equipment so that we can all benefit from China’s growth.”
Huawei is currently not able to do business with US companies because the Trump administration placed it on the Department of Commerce’s trade blacklist, citing national security fears. Among other issues, this means Huawei is unable to license Android from Google, severely hampering its smartphone business trade of China