What made me particularly sick is when asked about over time working problem (996[1]), Ren's answer was: Huawei obeys the law and protect workers, but our workers have a calling, they won't be successful without their calling. Foreign scientists work even harder than Chinese scientists, many foreign scientists don't get married before 40s.
This is the finest propaganda I've seen recently, well matching the "Our great Patriot Farmers" tweet[2]
It isn't much of an exaggeration to say his company is under sustained attack by the United States. Control over telecommunications is a plank in the US's strategic dominance; if Huawei was based in Iran a WMD-found-boots-on-ground-needed incident might even be on the cards. There are 300 million people in the world who are notionally legally bound to try and make Huawei's life difficult.
I'm not sure I can begrudge him propaganda. The threats to him personally and professionally are huge.
A great first step in encouraging technological openness would be dropping the Chinese Firewall[1,2]. Chinese companies have had a playing field slanted toward them for a while now. We should work toward open innovations in both the U.S. and China.
Don't get me wrong; I disagree with the recent U.S. approach and agree that it's not an exaggeration to call this an attack on Huawei, but we'll have far worse things to worry about than Google removing ad-blocking if we let the Chinese state dictate our online lives.
I don't think protectionism is the answer, but I don't think the Huawei CEO is being completely genuine in his presentation here. It was definitely interesting to hear his perspective though.
Ironically enough, I remember Ren Zhengfei being referred to as “China’s Donald Trump” long before Trump was elected president, maybe in 2014 or 2013 (a coworker mentioned it to me over lunch)? I think he got this title by being outlandishly outspoken and overly patriotic.
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What made me particularly sick is when asked about over time working problem (996[1]), Ren's answer was: Huawei obeys the law and protect workers, but our workers have a calling, they won't be successful without their calling. Foreign scientists work even harder than Chinese scientists, many foreign scientists don't get married before 40s.
This is the finest propaganda I've seen recently, well matching the "Our great Patriot Farmers" tweet[2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system
[2] https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/11282610666544087...
It isn't much of an exaggeration to say his company is under sustained attack by the United States. Control over telecommunications is a plank in the US's strategic dominance; if Huawei was based in Iran a WMD-found-boots-on-ground-needed incident might even be on the cards. There are 300 million people in the world who are notionally legally bound to try and make Huawei's life difficult.
I'm not sure I can begrudge him propaganda. The threats to him personally and professionally are huge.
A great first step in encouraging technological openness would be dropping the Chinese Firewall[1,2]. Chinese companies have had a playing field slanted toward them for a while now. We should work toward open innovations in both the U.S. and China.
Don't get me wrong; I disagree with the recent U.S. approach and agree that it's not an exaggeration to call this an attack on Huawei, but we'll have far worse things to worry about than Google removing ad-blocking if we let the Chinese state dictate our online lives.
I don't think protectionism is the answer, but I don't think the Huawei CEO is being completely genuine in his presentation here. It was definitely interesting to hear his perspective though.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_C...
A great first step in encouraging technological openness would be dropping the decades long high tech embargo against China.
I don’t see how that’s related to China’s Great Firewall. What decades long embargo are you referring to?
Indeed, especially since by all accounts a lot of the firewall is built out of Western tech (e.g. Cisco).
Similarly, many large US tech companies are under sustained attack by China and have been banned for years now while copies have popped up.
I don't have any issue with begrudging an apparatus of an authoritarian surveillance state.
From my friends in Physics he seems to be correct about foreign scientists - but that's not something to be proud of or emulate.
It's just that since the Cold War the conditions in science have become rather awful.
Ironically enough, I remember Ren Zhengfei being referred to as “China’s Donald Trump” long before Trump was elected president, maybe in 2014 or 2013 (a coworker mentioned it to me over lunch)? I think he got this title by being outlandishly outspoken and overly patriotic.
Edit: never mind, it was another Ren (Zhiqiang rather than Zhengfei) https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34350352