Ren Zhengfei, founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, visited several top Chinese universities over the past three days, highlighting the importance of developing homegrown talent as the global tech race continues to heat up. 

The visit also signals the most important task for the Chinese high-tech industry amid an escalating crackdown by the US, as developing home grown talent is seen as a key factor in solving Huawei's dilemma. 

From Wednesday to Friday, Ren visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Southeast University and Nanjing University. He was accompanied by two executives, He Wenwei and He Tingbo. 

Ren held discussions with experts at each university on industry-research cooperation, the development of high-tech talent, fundamental research and technological development. 

Huawei has become a prime target of the Trump administration's crackdown on China's high-tech growth amid growing tensions between China and the US. The Trump administration issued a new rule in May that bans Huawei and its suppliers from using US technology and software, which will take effect in September. 

"Some of the universities Ren visited are places to cultivate and train talents for telecommunication and high technology industries, who are key to being globally competitive," Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Global Times