Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei hosts a rare media interview.
The original news article can be found here.
In this opinion piece, journalist Thomas L. Friedman shares his experience interviewing Huawei Chief Executive Officer Ren Zhengfei and his thoughts on the U.S. Chinese trade war.
Huawei is one of the largest technology companies in China, producing more smartphones than Apple and trailing just behind Samsung. The company's products resemble those of Apple in both design and name. But the United States has its biggest concerns in the potential espionage of the Chinese government through Huawei products.
It's no secret that China has a suspect history with the media and internet in their country. With major search engines and social media applications blocked, China is mostly dominated by WeChat, a sort of all-in-one application that lets you interact with others, pay for products, and even call a ride. The Chinese search engine, Baidu, along with Weibo, a microblogging website, is heavily filtered.
For example, searching keywords such as "Tiananmen Square" returns no results, which is China's futile method of pretending the June 4th massacre never took place. Despite China's attempts of filtering its past along with their questionable government, the citizens are still aware. The use of VPNs and other firewall bypassing software allows the people to access the plethora of information available on the web. All of the people know that the Tiananmen Square protests were a real thing, but the government still tries to deny it.
Why does the Trump Administration not want to do business with China? Well there are multiple reasons. In the United States, there are no American producing 5G networks. But there are multiple companies internationally that have these services, one of the big ones being Huawei. Huawei has also been previously affiliated with American tech companies such as Microsoft and Samsung, but their relations have been cut off amidst the recent trade war. The Trump Administration is fearful of Huawei setting up their networks in the United States and allowing China to spy on our conversations (similar to what the NSA does?) and potentially turn off our electricity during a war (?).
But in a recent (and also rare) interview, Ren stated that he was willing to work with the United States and namely the Trump Administration to set up these networks and even allow American companies to rewrite the software to ensure that there is no sketchy espionage happening from China. They want to reach some kind of consensus, but are weary because of President Trump's irrational tendencies. Since President Trump seems to treat foreign affairs as a win or lose situation, China and Huawei don't see any kind of win-win situation coming out of this trade war.
It seems that Huawei is offering a solution to benefit the United States with a new and improved 5G network, while also ensuring information and cybersecurity. Why would they do that? They most likely want to reestablish relations with the American companies, who weren't actually given a reason as to why they couldn't do business with Huawei.
Aside from me throwing a little bit of shade in the way of the Trump Administration, it does seem that they have our security in high priority, which is in our best interest. Could they be taking it a little too far, like an overprotective father on his daughter's prom night? Maybe. But as of now, all we can do is wait for some kind of resolution for this situation.
3 comments:
Trump's fear or China shutting off our electricity during a war is ridiculous, but so is this trade war. I don't blame Ren for being a bit skeptical of Trump's temper and rationality, in fact it's probably best to approach this with some caution. It makes sense for Huawei to want to continue working with American companies, the revenue from a new 5G network seems immense, but at what point is it not worth it to work with a country who refuses to trust you? I think the Trump administration is being far too cautious and irrational, and I hope this trade war ends soon.
To take a somewhat less popular opinion on this topic, I believe it isn't a bad idea for Trump to continue a trade war with China. While China makes ridiculous amounts of money from their products (as does the U.S.), they are not known for being innovative, and rather simply copy the ideas of others for a cheaper price and on a larger scale. Unfortunately for China, they have no way to solve this problem, since their lack of innovation stems from shutting down any thinking contradicting the ideas of the party. If its people are being taught to simply follow existing political ideas, then why would they come up with new economic ones? 5G is somewhat of an exception, since China has certainly jumped on that tech bandwagon before the U.S., but to me, it seems like a futile attempt to catch up with American tech. Additionally, while Huawei may seem like a company operating on a similar scale to the big U.S. names like Apple and Google, their products are mostly sold in China itself, with a lack of tariffs providing an incentive. Additionally, a major threat to Huawei is the fact that because of the trade war, Google has been banned from releasing its apps, such as Youtube, Google Maps, the Play Store (which provides access to many other apps), and possibly the entire Android OS (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49508121). Without Google's software, buying Huawei's phones will become much less appealing to consumers. I personally have no idea what will happen to Huawei in the long run, but I believe the trade war's pressure is certainly hurting them more than us.
Although it is generally expressed that China is not as innovative as other countries like Nicholas said above, I believe China is does have some sort of creativity in using technology to influence the way people do things. For example, the popular app Wechat, is utilized throughout their daily exercises beginning with merely sending messages to social media posting, indoor and outdoor shopping, as well as calling cars and ordering food. I feel that this trade war is ultimately unnecessary and that maybe Trump is going too far. Like the article implied, it is significantly beneficial if China and the US could work together technologically, “Otherwise we’re heading for a two-technology world, with a Chinese zone and an American zone, and a digital Berlin Wall running right down the middle.” If Trump continues to deny this, the US will not be able to expand its market without a 5G networking manufacturer. However, it does make sense that China can use this to easily dominate America and its inner networks, making it easier to spy on the American public. Nevertheless, this idea is contradicted by China’s affirmation to keep this negotiation secure and trustworthy.
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