Make Huawei's hardship an incentive for innovation

Source:CGTN Published: 2019/5/24 17:06:18

Editor's note: Kong Qingjiang is the dean of the School of International Law at the China University of Political Science and Law. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The US Commerce Department, Bureau of Industry and Security put Huawei on its "Entity List," in a move that could starve Huawei of needed goods and services from U.S. companies. 

This extreme measure was taken on the ground that Huawei presents a security threat to the United States. The U.S. has also been mobilizing its allies to block Huawei products in their 5G networks.

However, the perceived security threat has never been demonstrated convincingly in any U.S. public forum by anyone with access to the information upon which such a conclusion should be based.

Contrary to the perception, investigations by British and German authorities have so far found no security loophole embedded in Huawei's products while the German users of products of Cisco, a notable competitor of the Huawei, were found susceptible to security risks on 10 separate occasions.

Therefore, it is reasonable for the outsiders to believe the U.S. policymakers are probably predisposed to see security threats where others don't. Indeed, the U.S. campaigns against Huawei so far were motivated less by concern over specific security threats than by the urge to respond to China's impressive rise.

It is widely believed in China and beyond that as long as indigenous innovation uplifts Chinese companies to the status of global competitors vis-à-vis the U.S. counterparts, the United States will continue to take full advantage of the convenient security threat allegations.

For Huawei, it has indeed suffered a huge loss from the U.S. antagonistic actions. The blacklisting is no doubt a calculated blow to hit Huawei where it hurts. Fortunately, the global giant, which has grown up in line with the country's opening-up process, has turned out to be much stronger than expected.

Its annual turnout continues to rise despite worsening external environment. As soon as the blacklist was announced, Huawei unexpectedly revealed its Plan B - a series of self-developed chips.

Objectively, Huawei's preparation, which apparently is out of its strategic insight, owes to the hardship that the U.S. deliberately created. It was also the hardship that drove Huawei to be an innovator. It has been hence made to be a leading 5G developer from a mere telecommunication equipment manufacturing and processing entity.

Huawei is also worth praising for its vision and its composure. It is fully aware of its position in the global marketplace as a newcomer. Gracefully does it pay due respect to its competitors and partners? Just as Ren Zhengfei, Huawei's founder and CEO, reckoned, "Huawei is at the forefront, though when it comes to comparison between countries, we are still far behind the United States."

More laudable is that Huawei stands cool in defiance of such considerable hardship as Google's suspension of its business with Huawei, a move made in compliance with the order of the U.S. Commerce Department relating to the Entity List. The discontinuation of business between Google and Huawei is expected to pose a serious challenge to Huawei's overseas smartphone business if the issue cannot be properly addressed in time.

Surprisingly, it did not run into panic; it did not even resort to the nationalist sentiment, as many others would have done under the same situations. Instead, its users' rights were among its first concerns amid a serial of business discontinuation announcement by its U.S. chips and software suppliers.

In his interview, Mr. Ren vowed to continue providing security updates and after-sales services for all its smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are in stock globally.

This was why Huawei is boasted to be a great firm of resilience and accountability in the face of difficulties.

Posted in: PRESS RELEASE

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