Huawei founder confident of company's ability to survive, report says
Ren Zhengfei makes his first public comments in nearly a year, and the first since Joe Biden took office.
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Huawei's founder reckons his company has a bright future.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said Tuesday that he's confident the company will be able to endure current difficulties and survive, according to Reuters. In his first remarks since US President Joe Biden's inauguration, Ren said Huawei clocked positive growth for revenue and net profit last year and continues to witness "significant levels of confidence from its customers."
He was speaking at a the sidelines of an event in the northern Chinese city of Taiyun, where the company launched a 5G mining project.
The comments from the 76-year-old founder, which are his first public remarks since last February, come as Huawei's mobile business struggles amid pressure from US sanctions levelled under the Trump administration. In the final quarter of 2020, Huawei's mobile shipments plunged by 41% to 33 million, Counterpoint Research reported in January, sending Huawei, once the world's number one smartphone manufacturer, tumbling down to sixth place in global rankings.
On Monday, Huawei reportedly filed a lawsuit disputing its designation as a national security threat by the US Federal Communications Commission. It sought a review and said the FCC's 2020 ruling was "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion and not supported by substantial evidence," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Huawei didn't respond to CNET's request for comment.
CNET's Sean Keane contributed to this report.