Huawei’s chairman has harsh words for the U.S. government

March 29, 2019

The past couple of years have marked some steep ups and downs for Huawei. Just this morning, the company posted a 25 percent raise in profit to $8.84 billion in 2018. Yesterday, on the other hand, a UK oversight body issued a report noting “serious and systematic defects.”

While it’s true that on-going security concerns and reports of Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government haven’t put a damper on the company’s profits, they have managed to stifle its international growth. But it’s not giving up without a fight. Mobile chief Richard Yu famously raged against U.S. carriers at a keynote a couple of CESes back, and now another top exec is back with some not-so-kind words.

In an interview with the Financial Times posted today, Guo Ping, one of Huawei’s rotating chairman, took the U.S. government to task. “The US government has a loser’s attitude,” he told the site. “They want to smear Huawei because they can’t compete with us.”

FT says Guo went on to add that “the US has abandoned all table manners.” The executive does rightly point out that, “Countries have made their own decisions based on their own interests, not the interests of the US.” While some have heeded the U.S. government’s calls, other bodies, including the E.U. have taken a more cautious approach to the company, without embracing an outright ban.

While Huawei has been making the bulk of its money on consumer devices, these sorts of bans will become more and more part of Huawei’s bottomline as the world looks to competitors to supply 5G networking equipment.