Huawei's Chairman Says Fragmented Standards and Supply Chains Benefit No One
Huawei held its 17th annual Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, and Guo Ping, the company's Rotating Chairman, delivered a keynote speech and expressed his concerns on the latest moves by the U.S. government against the Chinese conglomerate.
At the opening of the event, Huawei's Rotating Chairman Guo Ping delivered a keynote speech titled "Huawei: A Year and Beyond". Guo Ping started by sharing Huawei's experience and business results of the past year. He said, "Over the past year, many technologies became unavailable to us. Despite this, Huawei struggled to survive and is striving to move forward."
In the past 30-plus years, Huawei has deployed over 1,500 networks in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over 3 billion people worldwide. The company also provides smart devices to 600 million consumers.
"US actions against Huawei will not only harm Huawei, but also harm the experiences of customers and consumers that use Huawei's products and services," said Guo Ping.
ICT infrastructure is the foundation of the intelligent world. By 2025, the digital economy will represent an industry worth 23 trillion US dollars. Ping said that the ICT industry still has great potential.
Looking ahead, Huawei will continue investing in three domains: connectivity, computing, and smart devices. "We will work with customers, partners, standards organizations, and all other industry players in domains like supply chain, standards, and talent cultivation, to encourage open collaboration, promote inclusive industry development, and explore the future together," Ping said.
He added:
"Today the world is an integrated collaborative system. The trend of globalization shouldn't and will not likely be reversed. Fragmented standards and supply chains benefit no one, and further fragmentation will have a severe impact on the entire industry. The industry as a whole should work together to strengthen IPR protection, safeguard fair competition, protect unified global standards, and promote a collaborative global supply chain."
Huawei categorically opposes the amendments made by the US Department of Commerce to its foreign direct product rule that target Huawei specifically.
The US government added Huawei to the Entity List on May 16, 2019. Since that time, and despite the fact that a number of key industrial and technological elements were made unavailable to the Chinese company, Huawei says it has "remained committed to complying with all US government rules and regulations." At the same time, the company says it has fulfilled its contractual obligations to customers and suppliers, and has "survived and forged ahead against all odds."
"Nevertheless, in its relentless pursuit to tighten its stranglehold on our company, the US government has decided to proceed and completely ignore the concerns of many companies and industry associations.
This decision was arbitrary and pernicious, and threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide. This new rule will impact the expansion, maintenance, and continuous operations of networks worth hundreds of billions of dollars that we have rolled out in more than 170 countries.
It will also impact communications services for the more than 3 billion people who use Huawei products and services worldwide. To attack a leading company from another country, the US government has intentionally turned its back on the interests of Huawei's customers and consumers. This goes against the US government’s claim that it is motivated by network security."
Huawei says that the decision by the US government will have a serious impact on a wide number of global industries. "In the long run, this will damage the trust and collaboration within the global semiconductor industry which many industries depend on, increasing conflict and loss within these industries."
"The US is leveraging its own technological strengths to crush companies outside its own borders. This will only serve to undermine the trust international companies place in US technology and supply chains. Ultimately, this will harm US interests.
Huawei is undertaking a comprehensive examination of this new rule. We expect that our business will inevitably be affected. We will try all we can to seek a solution. We hope that our customers and suppliers will continue to stand with us and minimize the impact of this discriminatory rule."