The IT Nerd

I am guessing the pressure is getting to Huawei because the CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei who isn’t known for sitting down for the media had a lot of things to say to the media today. Starting with this:

In a rare sit down with international media, Ren Zhengfei addressed concerns raised by the U.S. government, which has warned that the company’s equipment could allow the Chinese government to have a backdoor into a nation’s telecommunications network. Ren, speaking Mandarin and using a company-provided translator, told the group that Huawei has never handed data to Beijing. “When it comes to cybersecurity and privacy protection we are committed to be sided with our customers. We will never harm any nation or any individual,” Ren told the journalists assembled at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

Well. I don’t believe that as I find it highly implausible that if the Chinese government came knocking on the door of a Chinese company asking them to facilitate spying, that the company in question would not comply. Especially since China has laws that pretty much say that they have to comply.

He also said this:

“China’s ministry of foreign affairs has officially clarified that no law in China requires any company to install mandatory back doors. Huawei and me personally have never received any request from any government to provide improper information,”

Sure. Right. I believe that as much as I believe in the tooth fairy as Huawei simply saying that they haven’t been requested to put backdoors into their equipment isn’t the same thing as proving that this isn’t the case. At this point they need to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Then there was this:

Ren added. […] But Ren actually praised the U.S. president. “For President Trump as a person, I still believe he is a great president,” he said. “In the sense that he was bold to slash taxes. And I think that’s conducive for the development of industries in the United States.”

Clearly this guy knows that President Trump loves it when people pay him compliments. So he’s clearly trying to get onto his good side. What effect that will be interesting to see.

The fact that this event happened is very unusual. Thus I fully expect more “unusual” things to happen as Huawei tries to change the narrative on this story.

This entry was posted on January 15, 2019 at 10:05 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Huawei. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.