tanding on Huawei Technologies Co.’s sprawling new campus near Shenzhen, it’s hard to conceive that Ren Zhengfei, backed by five friends of friends, could have single-handedly turned his tiny start-up into a technology-driven colossus.
5G, the latest generation of wireless technology, is expected to be so fast it will change how we live. The 74-year-old founder and chief executive insists that he and the company have never knowingly compromised the security of its products and that they would never do so. He recently said he would rather close the company than do anything to hurt Huawei’s customers. He has also said his daughter committed no crime.
Huawei’s $1.5-billion, Disney-like campus in Dongguan has 12 replica European towns. The 2,200-acre site is connected by a red tram cloned from Switzerland. Had they kept their shares, they would each boast stakes equal to Ren, who owns 1.14% of the company’s shares at $1.17 apiece — a stake worth more than $220 million, the company said.
Despite U.S. efforts to constrain Huawei, its annual revenue rose almost 20% in 2018 to $105 billion. Ren predicts sales could triple over the next five years should Huawei overcome U.S. interference. A few years after that, China’s gross domestic product — led by Huawei and other tech companies — is likely to surpass that of the U.S.
“Since the Opium Wars, China has been defeated by countries with less population, wealth and geographical resources again and again,” Xi said in May. “One of the root causes of the situation is our inferior technology.” Within Huawei, Ren is regarded as more of a spiritual leader than a hands-on executive. His musings are often posted on an internal company website for employees to read. He’s prone to military imagery and has likened his troubles with Washington to a war.
Ren was born in 1944 in the impoverished southwestern province of Guizhou, the oldest of seven children. They often went hungry and grew up with few clothes, according to Ren. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering during the Cultural Revolution, when few people had jobs, and taught himself electronics using textbooks.
Ren’s first business effort, a small state-owned enterprise with 20 employees, was a flop. He then succeeded in raising capital with five other investors in Shenzhen to launch Huawei, a company that would start out by selling telephone switch equipment procured from Hong Kong.
Stop doing PR for Huawei please.
Stop ripping off IP 🇨🇳
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