Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei rejects spying claims as daughter faces US extradition
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei today refuted claims the Chinese government is using his company to spy on foreign rivals.
“I love my country, I support the Communist Party. But I will not do anything to harm the world. I don’t see a close connection between my personal political beliefs and the businesses of Huawei,” Ren told Bloomberg in a roundtable briefing.
Read more: Huawei employee arrested in Poland
The 74-year-old added that he missed his daughter, Huawei's CFO, who is being held by Canadian authorities at the request of the US and stands accused of misleading banks about the nature of Iran transactions, putting them at risk of US sanctions.
Meng Wanzhou is currently on bail but faces extradition to the US.
The billionaire's comments come after a Huawei employee was detained in Poland for allegedly spying for the Chinese government. Huawei fired Wang Weijing the next day but the incident adds to mounting pressure facing the tech giant.
However, Ren claimed Huawei was not a factor in rising tensions between China and the US that led to the superpowers waging a full-blown trade war over summer that is only now seeing signs of cooling down.
Read more: O2 to press on with Huawei 5G trial despite spying claims
"Huawei is only a sesame seed in the trade conflict between China and the US,” Ren told Bloomberg. “Trump is a great president. He dares to massively cut taxes, which will benefit business. But you have to treat well the companies and countries so that they are willing to invest in the US and the government will be able to collect enough tax.”
The US had led the charge on blocking Huawei equipment from national infrastructure, encouraging other western nations to do the same. However, O2 said it would push ahead with trials this year that would see it replace older Nokia infrastructure with Huawei hardware to underpin 5G.