Status: 06.03.2023 12:35 p.m
Meng Whanzou, daughter of the Huawei founder, is set to take over the leadership of the Chinese tech giant. The personnel is not without explosiveness: Meng played a key role in the conflict with the USA.
A major personnel decision is pending at the top management level of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who had previously been targeted by the US judiciary, is to take over the rotating chairmanship of the group for the first time on April 1. Informed circles confirmed to the dpa news agency in Beijing that a successor plan for Meng’s 78-year-old father, Ren Zhengfei, is to be initiated.
Without giving a date, Huawei confirmed to dpa request that Meng would become rotating chairman for six months this year “in accordance with our well-known management structure”. In the previous year, the manager had already been promoted to the third manager for the rotating chairmanship, alongside Eric Xu and Ken Hu.
Are more US sanctions imminent?
The forthcoming rise of 51-year-old Meng to the top management of the Huawei group could further increase US political reservations about the company. According to reports, US President Joe Biden is currently considering increasing sanctions against Huawei, potentially cutting off the company’s access to semiconductors from key US suppliers like Qualcomm or Intel altogether.
The company has denied allegations of espionage and cyber attacks on behalf of the Chinese government, emphasizing its successful cooperation with network operators in more than 170 countries and its track record in cyber security. A discussion about network security is certainly necessary, but an “evaluation based on the country of origin” is “discriminatory”. According to Huawei, a fact-based approach prevails in Germany, but there is still uncertainty among customers and responsible authorities, which must be dispelled in the “new normal”.
Huawei has already been deprived of access to the US Android operating system, which weighed heavily on the company’s smartphone business. The consequences of this decision became clear last week at the big mobile trade fair in Barcelona, when Huawei stopped presenting new smartphones.
Central figure in the USA conflict
In 2018, the arrest of Meng in Canada escalated the conflict between the US and Huawei. At the request of the US judiciary, the daughter of the company’s founder Ren has been accused of violating sanctions against Iran. The US has since filed multiple charges against Huawei for stealing trade secrets and violating the Iran embargo. China responded to Meng’s arrest by arresting two Canadians on suspicion of espionage and was criticized for engaging in “hostage politics”.
The manager was kept under house arrest for three years and fought legally against her extradition to the USA. In September 2021, a deal with US law enforcement allowed her to return to China in exchange for the release of the two imprisoned Canadians. As recently as December last year, US prosecutors ordered the case to be dropped, as previously agreed.
“Freed from crisis mode”?
Despite the adversity, the technology giant says it has “climbed out of crisis mode” and is talking about a “new normal”. Revenue was stable at 636.9 billion yuan in 2022 after plummeting 28.6 percent the year before. At the end of March, the annual results will be announced.
Pressure from the US is forcing Huawei to diversify its business faster than initially planned. The company is expanding into cloud services, industrial technical support and services, even entering unfamiliar territory such as auto, healthcare, education, logistics and mining. The area of smart manufacturing plays an important role in Germany, according to the current chairman Xu.