Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is on a media blitz after being a well-known publicity-shy recluse for years.

After the trade war before the United States and China took a turn for the worse in May 2019, he has come out to charm, talk and soothe frayed nerves.

Ren has gone so far as to admit in a Bloomberg interview that the recent Trump ban will cut into the two-year lead his company has built over rivals such as Ericsson and Nokia.

Nevertheless, he remained confident of Huawei's ability to ride out the setback.

The United States has recently imposed sanctions on Huawei and 70 of its affiliates, citing "national security" risks.

Previously, Ren said the U.S. has underestimated the tech giant's strength, and that its rivals would not be able to catch up with its 5G technology within "two or three years".

Here are the points he made in the interview.

No need to negotiate with Trump

When asked by the interviewer how likely he thinks Huawei is going to be included in a trade deal between the U.S. and China, he sidestepped the question and downplayed Trump's involvement in the issue:

"The U.S. has never bought products from us. Even if they want to buy our products in the future, I may not sell to them.

There's no need for negotiation. I can ignore Trump. Then, with whom can he negotiate?

If he calls me, I may not answer. But he doesn't even have my number.

I see his tweets, and I think they are laughable, because I think they are self-contradictory."

Airplane will continue flying

When asked how long Huawei would be able to "survive" after a growing number of companies, such as Google, Qualcomm, Intel, ARM, have started to cut off their supplies to the Chinese company, Ren remained confident that the "airplane will continue flying".

This is because Huawei will "fix the holes" caused by the disruption.

He also said the U.S. is not an "international police", and that it cannot stop non-American companies from supplying to Huawei.

In addition, he said that while American companies produce half the chips Huawei is using, Huawei produces the other half by itself.

"If the U.S. imposes further restrictions on us, we'll reduce our purchases from the U.S. and use more of our own chips," he said.

Still, Ren said should Washington allow American companies to sell to Huawei, Huawei would continue to buy in large quantities from them.

More likely for American companies to steal Huawei's technology

Ren also rebuffed criticism that Huawei got to where it is today because of intellectual property theft and government support, saying Huawei could not have possibly stolen technology from the U.S. that has not even been developed yet.

Instead, he said it is more likely that American companies steal Huawei's technology as the latter is leading the U.S.

"If we were behind, Trump wouldn't need to make so much effort to attack us," he said.

"He attacks us because we're more advanced than them."

Beijing will not retaliate against Apple

Furthermore, Ren addressed the growing call for Beijing to retaliate against the American company Apple, saying he does not want to see that happen.

"That will not happen, first of all. Second of all, if that happens, I'll be the first to protest.

Apple is the world's leading company. If there was no Apple, there would be no mobile internet. If there was no Apple to help show us the world, we would not see the beauty of the world.

Apple is my teacher. It's advancing in front of us. As a student, why should I oppose my teacher? I would never do that."

Apple's iPhones are assembled in China.

China is also Apple's second largest market after the U.S.

Huawei has overtaken Apple to become the world's second-largest smartphone maker in May this year -- Samsung remains the world's leading smartphone maker.

Despite being publicity-shy previously, Ren has become somewhat more adept at dealing with the media in recent months, giving a slew of interviews to both domestic and foreign media ever since trouble started brewing for his company.

Huawei accused of spying

Huawei is caught in the cross-hairs of the ongoing trade dispute between China and the U.S.

At the request of the U.S., Canada arrested Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, for allegedly evading sanctions on Iran in December 2019.

Meng is currently under house arrest in Canada.

The blacklisting of Huawei came after the U.S. hiked its tariffs on US$200 billion (S$276 billion) worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, prompting China to retaliate by increasing tariffs on US$60 billion (S$83 billion) of U.S. goods.

Ren has insisted that the company does not provide data to the Chinese government, nor has the latter asked Huawei to do so.

However, the U.S. has remained doubtful of Huawei’s claims.

Experts also said that according to Chinese laws, Chinese companies are legally mandated to assist the government in intelligence gathering if they were asked to do so.

Ren was a former engineer who worked for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and is a current member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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https://mothership.sg/2019/05/panasonic-china-huawei-doing-business/?fbclid=IwAR2JwzF0iuf4rulKNPTXGgd_NYaTchkhoVhoxdlChfsUfiZjV93HgcgTb0o

Top image via Bloomberg video interview