(Ren Zhengfei (Center). Photo from Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
From July 29-31, 2020, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Southeast University, and Nanjing University. According to the minutes of the meeting released today, Ren said he would never hate the United States and that the desire to survive made Huawei work harder.
Ren said that today's technological and economic prosperity is closely related to the beacon of technology of Britain, Europe, America, Japan, and Russia. Therefore, it is necessary to respect these countries and respect the ancestors who contributed.
"The second, third, and fourth hits...and we realized that some politicians in the US wanted us dead. The desire to survive lifted us up and looked for a way to save ourselves," he said.
"No matter what, we will never hate America, that's just a part of the politician's impulse, it doesn't represent American businesses, American schools, American society," Ren said, adding, "We still have to keep the path of self-reliance and openness the same. If you want to be truly strong, you have to learn from everyone, including your own enemies."
Huawei has chosen the US as its theoretical base in the past, increasing its investment in the UK and Europe more than a decade ago, and later adding investments in Japan and Russia.
After the US added Huawei to the entity list, Huawei shifted its investment in the US to Russia, expanding the Russian scientist workforce and boosting the salaries of Russian scientists.
"We hope that in 10 or 20 years, our universities will take on the burden of catching up with the world's theoretical centers," he said.
