Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei says that if President Donald Trump wants to talk, he will have to come to China. While Ren is certainly interested in speaking with the U.S. President, he says there are some obstacles.
First of all, he says he doesn’t have a channel of communication with the President. This means that Ren doesn’t have Trump on his contact list and thus he can’t call him. As for why he can’t visit Washington to personally negotiate with him, Huawei CEO says it’s because he only has a paper airplane. He added that Trump, on the other hand, has private jets. So, he can visit China anytime. In contrast, Ren’s paper plane will fall off if it rains. Thus, the tech giant’s CEO can’t embark on the journey.
“He has private jets and he can come to China anytime, and I do not have private jet,” he added. “My airplane is only made of paper — if it rains, it might fall.”
As you might have caught on, Ren probably owns a jet or two himself. After all, he is the founder of the world’s second best selling smartphone company. The manufacturer’s mobile network gear business is far ahead of competitors. His net worth is estimated to be between $1.4 billion to $3 billion.
U.S. And China Might Resolve Issues Soon
Huawei CEO often gives vague statements regarding Trump. For instance, a month after his daughter was arrested on U.S.’ requests, he said he might not be able to answer a call from the President because he doesn’t speak English. However, the timing of this one is rather confusing.
The U.S. and China are close to getting done with the first phase of a trade deal. It will involve rolling back additional tariffs and continuing negotiations to resolve other issues. Apparently, Trump is anxious to seal the deal. After all, China is too big an economy to be ignored. Huawei alone reportedly spent $11 billion on buying U.S. technology last year.
At the same time, the U.S. is a very important country for Huawei. Now that it’s on the entity list, the company can no longer do business with American companies. This also means that its newer phones do not come with the official version of Android. While this doesn’t matter in China, as consumers there don’t use Google’s apps and services anyway, it’s a big deal in Western countries. As a result, the sale of the tech giant’s smartphone can be affected severely. In fact, Ren has also admitted that the effect on the non-China region is bigger than the local market.
Trump was also lobbying for Huawei’s 5G equipment to be banned in other countries. As a result, some countries decided to block out the company’s gear. This prompted Zen to take drastic measures such as putting the 5G portfolio on sale.
So, why Zen would say something that can undermine the talks is perplexing. He recently also said that the trade war doesn’t matter to him as the company doesn’t sell phones in the U.S. anyway. But of course, as mentioned before, it isn’t really about sales.
Huawei CEO Is Apparently More Interested In Making The Company Self Sufficient
Before the embargo, Huawei was aiming to dethrone Samsung to become the number one smartphone vendor in the world. It appears that Huawei CEO is more interested in making the company self-reliant now. He is no stranger to problems. From a troubled childhood, he went on to become one of the most prominent businessmen in the world. According to Zen, the company has seen far worse times. Thus, he says he doesn’t really care even if the U.S. keeps Huawei on the blacklist forever. At the same time, he is ready to give a warm welcome to Trump if he ever goes to China. In short, it’s hard to make out what’s really on his mind. We think he is bluffing. If that’s the case, things will go south for Huawei if Trump calls his bluff.