Ren Zhengfei, Huawei founder and CEO, at a livestreaming "A coffee with Ren" on Wednesday  Photo: Courtesy of Huawei

The founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Huawei said his company should thank US suppliers for their support in the past 30 years, and will always embrace globalization, in response to the US Entity List.

Ren Zhengfei said the company will survive the ban by itself, but to develop by itself is not a long-term strategy.

Huawei on Wednesday afternoon launched a livestream of "A coffee with Ren." Ren discussed "digital sovereignty" with the Spiritual Father of the Smart Factory Detlef Zuehlke and a former president of the UN Security Council Kishore Mahbubani.

Ren said he is willing to meet US President Donald Trump. "Trump has giant planes and can fly here anytime, but I've only got paper planes that cannot survive the rain," he said jokingly.

On whether Huawei products have "back doors," Ren said Huawei, just like car producers, is an equipment vendor and must ensure that its products are free of information security issues, and that the firm is willing to comply with government supervisions worldwide.   

It is unwise for US policymakers to come up with the Entity List, for which they think the decoupling of Chinese and US economies could slow down the Chinese economy, Mahbubani said.

It is hard to believe China's economic growth will be slowed by the Entity List given China's gross national product (GNP), in purchasing power parity terms, has grew larger than the US from 10 percent that of the US within decades, Mahbubani noted.

Calling the list a strategic mistake, Mahbubani said US policymakers should reconsider it.

The US has been using "national security" as an excuse to crack down on Huawei, which has pushed the Chinese private firm under the global spotlight. The US placed Huawei on an Entity List in May to restrict it from buying technology or parts from US companies.

The solution to the information security issue should ultimately rest on laws and regulations instead of completely depending on technology, Ren said, adding that Huawei will always embrace globalization.

"It could be said that we survived the US ban if we develop smoothly in the next year," said Ren, noting that the first half-year prior to the ban still generated momentum for Huawei's development.  

The US ban, by contrast, has spurred Huawei, and made us more united and helped Huawei realize a higher sales growth and good profits which, on the other hand, need to be adjusted in the future as well, he noted.

As a 5G tech leader, Huawei's has been expanding worldwide, with more than 60 commercial contracts and 400,000 product deliveries so far, Jiang Yafei, one of the company's senior executives, said at the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) on Wednesday in Shanghai.

"I believe that most of the 5G signals will be provided by Huawei devices in the future," Jiang said.