We are already approaching a month since Joe Biden took over the position of US president, and there seem to be no signs that tensions between the US and China will ease. A new Commerce Minister has been appointed, who has not made it clear whether he will continue with the blacklist of Chinese companies imposed by Trump. Now the CEO of Huawei has taken a stand, requesting a relaxation from the Americans.
Fondatorul şi CEO-ul Huawei, Ren Zhengfei a recomandat noii administraţii americane să aibă o politică mai deschisă faţă de firmele din China. Aceste discuţii şi recomandări au venit în cadrul unei mese rotunde cu presa chineză. Oficialul a recunoscut că Huawei nu are aşteptări prea mari totuşi cu privire la ridicarea restricţiilor. Ren Zhengfei a declarat şi că firma chineză vrea să se axeze pe producţia de dispozitive de calitate şi că "nu are energia de a fi implicată în acest vârtej politic".
The Huawei official did not forget to praise Apple again, calling the iPhone 12 "the best smartphone in the world". Here is a relevant quote from his speech:
The founder of Huawei publicly wondered if the aggressive position of the Americans against Chinese companies would be for the benefit of his economy and his businesses. Thus, it would be very difficult for the US to get rid of the restrictions. I remind you that since May 2019, Huawei has been put on a black list of Chinese companies that can no longer collaborate with American companies or buy technologies, software or products from them. Since then Huawei has been applying for temporary collaboration licenses and for a moment managed to get partnerships again with Intel, AMD and a few other names.
They dissolved in January 2021, when Donald Trump rejected 150 license and partnership applications from Huawei, on his last day in office. The effects on Huawei were felt especially in 2020, and in the 4th quarter of 2020 the analysis of Canalys shows that Huawei is no longer even in the top 5 smartphone manufacturers. Apple is in first place, then Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. The biggest loss for Huawei was access to the Play Store and Google Services, but also the restriction of access to processors from TSMC, MediaTek or Qualcomm.
With Qualcomm, a gate had appeared at the end of 2020, but it did not materialize. In the end, Huawei was forced to sell its Honor branch, which is allowed to work with the Americans. The ball is in Biden's court and we await a reaction.