Billy Huang

Opinion | The perils of Chinese ambiguity: how and why the US mistrusts and misunderstands China

Chinese entrepreneurs seem well versed in the art of doublespeak, which dates back to a philosophical dichotomy in the Qin and Han dynasties. The practice is culturally acceptable in China but does not go down well in the West

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Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said in 2015 he had “already transferred” his duties to a successor. So when it comes to his recent remarks about Huawei, should the world understand him to be speaking as a father, whose daughter is still in detention in Canada, and not as a businessman whose words still carry weight? Photo: AFP

Billy Huang

Published: 1:00am, 28 Feb 2019Updated: 4:11am, 28 Feb 2019

Reclusive Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has recently been taking the limelight and talking to the international media. In an interview with CBS that aired on February 19, he promised that the telecoms company would never spy on the United States and that even if he was required by Chinese law to share customer data with Beijing, he would “firmly reject that”.

The statement sounds genuine, but does not square with what he told foreign reporters at a round table weeks ago, when he said that he loves his country, supports the Communist Party, and that “we must abide by all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate”.

If Ren meant what he said about obeying all applicable laws, he might be subject to legal and political risk in China. President Xi Jinping has declared: “Government, the military, society and schools, north, south, east and west – the party leads them all.” Also, China’s national intelligence law states that all organisations and citizens shall support and cooperate in national intelligence work.

According to China’s Caixin Global, Ren said in 2015 he had “already transferred” his duties to a successor. So when it comes to his recent remarks about Huawei, should the world understand him to be speaking as a father, whose daughter is still in detention in Canada, and not as a businessman whose words still carry weight?

The contradictory statements, bordering on duplicity, could arouse nothing but suspicion in the English-speaking world. But they also lead to a larger question: how should the West understand China, especially its entrepreneurs, in the 21st century?

In his 2017 book The China Order, Professor Fei-Ling Wang at the Georgia Institute of Technology writes: “Rarely were there a nation and a culture so morally and ideologically sanctioning so much highly utilitarian duplicity and pretentiousness.”