Editorial | Huawei chief spells out China hi-tech resilience

The way Ren Zhengfei tells it, Huawei Technologies, the telecoms behemoth he founded, is just one of many hi-tech firms in China. He apparently feels puzzled that the United States keeps targeting his company when its products and computer chips, as well as those of China’s other advanced producers, are a generation behind their American counterparts.

That may be true, but no one should take what he said at face value. His remarks appeared on the front page of People’s Daily during two days of intense high-stakes trade talks between Beijing and Washington in London. Two sticking points have been China’s restrictions on the exports of rare earths, and America’s new curbs on the sale of jet engines and chip-design technologies to China.

With Huawei being one of the most important companies behind the nation’s drive to become technologically self-sufficient, Ren’s interview in Chinese was not only aimed at a domestic audience first and foremost, but also America. We may be behind, he admitted, but were catching up, through perseverance, determination and ingenuity. The most advanced chips may be denied us, but through clever mathematical and computing techniques, Chinese engineers could deliver chips almost as powerful as anybody else.

While appearing humble, he was telling the world and the US that Huawei is here to stay, no matter what is thrown at it. There is no better example of Deng Xiaoping’s famous dictum: hide your strength, bide your time. In the intensifying trade and tech war between two of the world’s largest economies, Huawei has been in the eye of the storm. Last month, the US Department of Commerce tried to declare that the use of Huawei’s Ascend chips “anywhere in the world” would be a violation of American export controls.

Beijing responded angrily, and the department climbed down, saying it was an advisory, not an order. Now, subject to final approvals, the two sides may have reached a truce, including apparently relaxing some export curbs on rare earth and chip technologies.

This will not be the end of their tech war. But China is in a good position with companies like Huawei as one of its trump cards.