“The next decade will be a very painful historical period, coinciding with the continued decline of the global economy,” Ren Chengfei told the Huawei team, referring to the pandemic, the impact of the Ukrainian war, and the “continuous blockade” of some Chinese companies by the United States.
Ren continued, “Huawei should lower its overly optimistic expectations for the future, and survival should become the most important guideline until 2023 or 2025. We shouldn’t just survive, we should survive elegantly.”
Huawei, usually the largest Chinese company, is managing significant declines in revenue and profits. Revenues declined by 14% in the first three months of this year, while the net profit margin shrank from 11.1% last year, to only 4.3% during the first quarter of this year.
The company has been at the center of US-China tensions, which have seen Washington and some Western countries ban Huawei from their markets, citing national security concerns. The company was also banned from buying some foreign technologies as well.
