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Huawei CEO Says Company Doesn't Spy For China and Praises Trump in Rare Appearance (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Huawei would never allow China's government to access customer data, even if Beijing requested it, the CEO and founder of the company repeatedly emphasized Tuesday, amid continued political pressure on the Chinese technology giant. From a report: 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.

"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," 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."

14 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After the way China has chosen to treat Canadians over there I don't need Trump to encourage North America to stop consuming Chinese goods. I can do that myself.

    1. Re:Canada by dryeo · · Score: 4, Informative

      They originally gave him 15 years. After the Huaweii incident, they seem to have decided to give him the death sentence and had a court session with the press invited to change the sentence. Inviting the press to a court session is seldom done.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    2. Re:Canada by derrickn · · Score: 3

      Sorry for the blatant what-about-ism but China exports far more fentanyl than it imports meth. And fentanyl is killing a hell of a lot more people than meth is. So please arrest all the exporters, too? Secondly, this isn't about the law in China - as others have pointed out, Canada doesn't currently approve of capital punishment but that is the concensus view and not exhaustive. Its certainly subject to change if the majority of the Canadian population chooses to change it . As opposed to China where the laws change according to the view of a tiny percentage of a percentage of the population (the party leadership) and is dictated to the sheep-ish population Thirdly - this *is* about how the Chinese media suddenly jumped on a two year old court case, followed by the Chinese judiciary suddenly and without any apparent new evidence (according to the Chinese defence lawyer for the case) exacting a re-trial and a savage new sentence. Note that the Chinese national who was convicted at the same time as the Canadian was given a suspended death sentence. Maybe the Canadian is more guilty than the Chinese national, and maybe death is the proper sentence for his crimes in China. Per point 2, that's not the issue - China's laws are China's laws - what's of concern is how the case has suddenly been amplified in what looks very much like an attempt at political manipulation.

  2. Wow he figured it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow he figured it out that if you praise Trump, you get favorable treatment from him and his administration!

    1. Re:Wow he figured it out! by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have worked with Bosses who were like Trump. They are easy to manipulate and control, and I can normally get my way without them making any fuss, and they will often stand behind me.
      Their Ego is their biggest flaw, you keep their ego happy and make them feel like they are the Big Boss man who we all love. They will most of the time give you free reign, as long after your done, he looks good.
      They are actually extremely ineffective as a Boss, an most people really don't like them, because if you cross their Ego there is hell to pay. And their Ego would trump (no pun intended) and greater good thinking or long term thinking. And as an employee who is manipulating the guy you are also competing against other employees who may be manipulating him in the other direction.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Wow he figured it out! by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 3, Informative

      Indeed. Trump is a classical narcissist who thinks he knows better than his specialized advisers, and who is convinced he understands defense and geopolitical strategy better than his generals, because he is "special".

      Really not intending to be polemic, but this is a very common trait among autocrats like Hitler, Stalin, Putin to a degree, though he is much, much smarter than the former about it.

      Narcissists are easily influenced by flatterers and surround themselves by yes-persons, since all with divergent opinions are driven out. Again something that can be observed in the Trump administration.

    3. Re:Wow he figured it out! by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not sure why this is modded so highly. The only money Iran got in the recent Iran deal was money that already belonged to it that we owed them. The "Promise not to build Nuclear Weapons" thing is, you know, a part of any anti-Nuclear treaty, why would you expect it not to be in there? And "Attack and kill Americans" isn't a thing Iran is currently involved in in any serious way, if it were we'd be at war already.

      The truth right now is that Iran is the one county in the Middle East (other than Israel, which we're already friends with) that's close (albeit still a way from) having a proper democracy and popular government. It's a country we were, until the mid-seventies, friends with, and it's a country that was, until the revolution, extremely Westernized.

      And here's the kicker: anything that promotes friendly relationships with the West undermines the religious government of Iran and strengthens the secular government. You feed into the "Great Satan" narrative by promoting treating Iran as lepers. You want to undermine Islamic fundamentalism? Make friends. Get Iran on good terms with the US. There's a lot of work to be done, some of the antagonism has legitimate roots (Iran suffered from terrible interference in its political affairs throughout most of the 20th Century until the revolution thanks to Britain and America) and has to be taken into account. But this whole "We're just enemies and we need to keep it that way" shit needs to end.

      Shame on those who would prefer war and would prefer it remain unstable and hostile.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    4. Re:Wow he figured it out! by gtall · · Score: 3, Informative

      A story about China and you bring up Iran? Obama didn't give billions of dollars to Iran, he merely allowed them to reclaim their money the U.S. had a hold upon.

      I wouldn't have signed that deal either with Iran, but there are plenty of foreign policy experts both within and without the U.S. Military who supported it. You must think of them as secret Obama supporters. And what is it Trump supporters still campaigning against Obama, he's not been president for 2 years. It leads me to think you want to deflect any blame for the current situation from Trump.

      Oh, and before you want argue that the Trump wants a militarily strong U.S., he was considering pulling out of NATO....just a little present for his main squeeze, Putin.

    5. Re:Wow he figured it out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Stunning ignorance. About 10 years ago it was front page news with photos showing Iran revolutionary guard commandos directing mortar and artillery fire from Iranian made weapons onto US troops on Iraqi soil.

      Oh right we just need to suck their asshole and they will refer to us as the great slurper instead of satan.

      Whatever transgressions Iran has made against the US is nothing compared to transgressions of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

      It's not like the US is some fucking saint in any of this. CIA did meddle with leadership. The US military did shoot down Iran air flight 655 because the captain who fired the weapon wanted blood. We were allied with Saddam while we knew they were using chemical WMD against Iranians. We stood by and did nothing as atrocities were committed by allies just like we are doing in Yemen today.

      Saudi Arabia funds and promotes terrorism around the world including whacked fundi schools which form the ideological basis of ISIS. Saudi's have bankrolled numerous efforts which have directly resulted in the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq. I won't even start with 9/11 where 15/19 hijackers came from and the missing 28 pages from 9/11 commission report implicating Saudi government in the attacks.

      Russia's transgressions against this country by giving aid and assistance those we have engaged in conflict with directly resulting in dead Americans are vast and innumerable in every major conflict following WWII... Yet every US president republican or democrat always seeks to maintain the relationship.

      Iran is a fucked up no doubt about it but at least they are a real country unlike KSA. You don't make peace with your allies. Of the two I would much rather US make peace with Iran than have US leaders be seen continually kissing the ass of the literally inbred Saudis.

  3. Not dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're not dumb. They're appealing to Trump's pride, which is the smart move. He seems to be motivated by being lauded. Will be interesting to see if he moves in their direction after they've sung his praises.

  4. Re:Blame Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Murder isn't retaliation, it's trying to start a war.

  5. Re:whereas .... by Luckyo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not just that. Every large company has a department that is specifically there to maintain political compliance. This department has ability to displace anyone in the company and is staffed by CCP officials who are picked by CCP itself and company has no real power over.

    That's why CEO of Huawei can openly state that government never made any requests like this to him. They didn't. They make such requests to CCP officials within the company who almost certainly handle the matter as an internal CCP policy that CEO has no real say in.

  6. BS [Re:Special Advisors!!! Oh Noes!!!] by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    when they were "specialist advisors" to Obama.

    So Obama is the one who crashed the US economy via banking deregulation? Buy a real history book, dude, not the Fox Edition. (Canada avoided much of the mortgage bubble slump by having sufficient regulations. It's also true that Bill Clinton, a Democrat, contributed to problematic banking dereg.)

    And T uses drone strikes also.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  7. Re:you make it sound like it comes for free by citylivin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "The guy got elected President. More than "some" actually voted for him."

    Exactly. Americans are stupid, period. We all learned that when GW bush was RE-elected...(if people didnt know that before with reagan, and others before that)

    The american "left" (really right wing by world standards) seems to think that america is schizophrenic, or that "good" americans are being manipulated by russia. When actually, no, the american public have been pretty much racist, classist, misogynistic, genocidal and ignorant since the countries founding. There is a reason that america has that reputation all over the world, and it wasnt started by trump. He is just the epitome of what the world already thinks most americans are like.

    I am sure there are the occasional "good hombres" like noam chomsky, but their numbers are like one in a million.

    --
    As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy