Huawei creator states child’s arrest was ‘politically encouraged’

Huawei creator and president Ren Zhengfei states that his child’s  December arrest was “politically motivated.”

The employer of the scandal-scarred Chinese telecom business informed CBS This Morning, in an interview that aired Wednesday, that he could not elaborate on the contention up until “after the court makes its decision,” echoing a point he made to the BBC previously today. (Note: CNET and CBS This Morning are both part of CBS.)

Ren’s child, Meng Wanzhou, is Huawei’s CFO. She was apprehended in Canada at the demand of the United States over supposed infraction of Iran sanctions. A court will choose whether she can be extradited to the United States.

Huawei is a leading supplier of networking and telecom devices, in addition to the world’s second-largest phone producer by volume. It has actually had a hard time to make a damage in the United States, partially due to the fact that of claims by the United States federal government that Huawei might position an espionage danger. Those concerns come at the very same time that the United States and China are participated in a standoff over tariffs.

Ren minimized his business’s value in the trade stress in between China and the United States.

“I think both China and the United States are of large scale. And while those powers clash, our company is as small as a tomato,” Ren stated.

“We do not carry that big weight, and neither does Miss Meng Wanzhou. And I don’t think Meng Wanzhou has anything to do with the clashes between the two powers.”

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Ren also dismissed allegations that his company’s products were being used to spy for China through built-in backdoors allowing intelligence agents to access data, the main reason for a US ban on Huawei networking equipment.

“Absolutely not possible. And also, we never participate in espionage and we do not allow any of our employees to do any act like that,” he said. “And we absolutely never install backdoors. Even if we were required by Chinese law, we would firmly reject that.”

When the interview turned to the topic of Tappy, a T-Mobile robot his company was accused of dismembering in order to steal its secrets, Ren was adamant that Huawei would “never reward any employee for improper actions.”

“Definitely I punish employees for improper behavior, because if you don’t do that, a company of this scale, how can we survive?” he said. “And our company highly respects intellectual property.”