In what he calls an attempt to create a balanced situation between China, the US and Europe, Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive of Huawei, has proposed an offer the Donald Trump-administration might find difficult to turn down. The boss of the Chinese telecom giant, facing ban in the US, has informed that he was open to a dialogue with Washington and was willing to "license the entire Huawei 5G platform to any American company that wants to manufacture it and install it and operate it, completely independent of Huawei". This, if the US promises to change its irrational approach towards Huawei.
The promise
"If the US reaches out to us in good faith and promises to change their irrational approach to Huawei, then we are open to a dialogue. The US shouldn’t try to destroy Huawei over something trivial. If the US feels we have done something wrong, then we can discuss it in good faith and find a reasonable solution. I think we can accept that approach," The New York Times quoted Ren as saying. “There are no restrictions on what we would be willing to discuss with the Department of Justice.”
If that was not enough, Ren is also ready to license the entire Huawei 5G platform to any American company that wants to manufacture it and install it and operate it, completely independent of Huawei. And with this, Ren hopes to establish a conducive environment for Huawei's survival.
American companies, he clarified, “can also modify our 5G technologies to meet their security requirements.” They can even change the software code, in order to assure the US of information security.
The only other 5G major suppliers are Nokia and Ericsson, European companies whose products are far more expensive than Huawei’s. South Korea's Samsung and China's ZTE are other alternatives. While American firms, including Cisco, Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have developed 5G-related technologies, the US lacks an infrastructure-equipment specialist of its own. That's where the licensing offer by Ren assumes significance.
The ban
The US and Australia have banned their networks from using Huawei's equipment following, what they claim to be, a security scare. While there are no clear evidences against Huawei in public, the US believes that Huawei is quite close to the Chinese government and can install “back doors” in its equipment that Chinese intelligence can exploit.
Ren's offer comes days ahead of the export blacklist on Huawei that would take full effect on November 19. This will mean that tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Intel would no longer do business with Huawei, China’s biggest phone equipment company. In addition, the Trump administration is also pressurising foreign companies that depend on American technology to not deploy Huawei products.
What Ren's offer means
Huawei, in a precarious position of losing business, has indicated it would go to any extend to solve the issue with the US. The BBC cited Ren's move as an "extraordinary offer".
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"Perhaps the explanation is that Huawei recognises that it is unlikely to be able to bypass the efforts the Trump administration is putting into minimising its scope to operate in North America, Western Europe and Australasia," the BBC quoted Prof Steve Tsang from SOAS University of London. "But it's difficult to see Nokia or Ericsson being interested in buying it. And it's also difficult to see how an American company would be able to reassure the Trump administration that it's absolutely top notch American technology. And if they can't do that, why would they want to spend tens of billions of US dollars on something that will quickly become out-of-date."
The sale of Huawei’s technology would not guarantee security from Chinese spies, The Economist reported. "Its spooks would remain perfectly capable of hacking networks run by Western companies. But the West would gain safe access to cutting-edge 5g technologies, avoiding roll-out delays. Competition would be enhanced by a new Western contender or a stronger existing one. The world might regrettably still have two tech ecosystems, but the plan might nonetheless help defuse the tech cold war," the report said.
