TAIYUAN, (CHINA) – Huawei Technologies’ founder, Ren, who was making his first media appearance since March last year said on Tuesday that he was confident that the Biden administration would bear in mind US business interests when forming its policy towards his company, adding that they still hoped to buy US products.
Ren said it was “conducive” to the financial performance of US companies to supply Chinese firms.
Huawei, China’s leading telecommunications equipment maker, was added to the US trade blacklist by the Trump administration in May 2019 citing national security concerns. Huawei has repeatedly denied it is a risk.
The move banned US-based firms from selling Huawei essential US technology. Last August, the ban was extended to foreign firms with US business, reaching chief suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) which effectively cut off Huawei’s access to chip supplies.
Ren, however, said he believe it would still be “extremely difficult” for Huawei to be taken off the US entity list, but stressed that they continued to hope to buy “large volumes” of US equipment and materials.
“We hope the new administration will harbour an open policy for the benefit of the American firms and also the economic development of the U.S.,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a 5G mining project Huawei was launching in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan.
He also added that he was confident of the company’s ability to survive even as its mobile business remains under pressure. The company achieved positive growth for both 2020 revenue and net profit, and that it continued to see significant levels of confidence from its customers, he added.