businesspeople-from-china

"We feel that users have more expectations. Concerning antitrust, privacy protections, the prevention of big data price discrimination, and so on, we, as users, share these concerns. For instance, with our gaming business, we know there are a lot of doubts."

"Wealth won’t give you satisfaction, creating a good product that’s well received by users is what matters most."

"A service starts with the satisfaction and needs of its users in mind and is defined by those two things. Spending core resources and time repeatedly on the optimisation of the obvious characteristics is basically the mania of novice internet entrepreneurs."

"But copying others can't make you great. So the key is how to localize a great idea and create domestic innovation."

"Technology is a capability. To be good is a choice. Over the past 23 years, Tencent has managed to come this far because society and our country have provided support that allowed Tencent to continuously grow."

"Education and health care are not only commercial services, but also public and universal ones. So on top of commerce, what can we do to play our role? What can we do in terms of pension and health in an ageing society?"

"As the world continues to adjust to the ‘new normal’, we are confident in the long-term growth potential of both devices and cloud infrastructure. We will continue to leverage our core competences of operational excellence and global/local footprint, while accelerating our service-led transformation to better grasp opportunities and drive sustainable growth."

"I should do something for Africa...I will go to Africa again, and want to see African entrepreneurs get not only the financial award, but also advice from successful predecessors. That can be even more valuable."

"After having had my microblog for a year, I find that Chinese netizens like to comment on topics regarding me. For example, my hairstyle has received a lot of reviews lately. I log on to Weibo everyday to check netizens' comments. There is no doubt that social media is a great platform to post information related to Lenovo's businesses."

"I spend a lot of time with my family. Because I think it's part of my life. I think the time...long or short is not the most important. I think the most important is the quality time...quality time with family."

"My biggest lesson from the Sichuan earthquake rescue is that grassroots NGOs can help the government in its blind spots. Government relief is not always detail-oriented. Grassroots NGOs can’t be as big as a government effort, but they need to be flexible and independent. Grassroots should not be merged. Once merged, they are no different from governmental organizations."

"When I think about ancient China or the ancient world, I wonder why people want to become king. For my personal taste, I like freedom."

"Well, since day one, we have always been a strong supporter of globalization in our operations, so that we can serve the global community by collaborating across the global value chain. A long time ago, however, we realized that there would be all kinds of uncertainties and conflicts between the US and Huawei. We needed to be prepared, so that we wouldn't collapse and could be self-reliant when the US chose not to sell to us. Today, I can say that it won't be a problem for us to survive short term, but I'm concerned whether we will still be a global leader in three to five years. We will delve deep into this topic, and it has become part of our agenda."

"A famous person once said that the easiest way to bring down a fortress is from within and the easiest way to reinforce it is from outside. Our fortress has let its guard down, and complacency has kicked in. But pressure from the US has forced us to be united and stick together. We're united as one now, and we're determined to make better products. This has eased the burden on me personally, because our people are working harder than ever before. They're out there clamoring louder than I am, so I can relax a bit and have more time to speak highly of the US."

"Just because the US is trying to suppress us does not mean we do not recognize it as a teacher. This will lead to isolation."

"In my personal life I'm a very traditional Chinese person, and when you promise a girl something you need to do it. Also, in a lot of Asian audiences, and probably American too, the man wants to see the action movie, he's begging the girl to go see an action movie. But this time, I really want the girl to say, come on man, let's go see the movie. Because, remember your promise. I think the man needs to be honest, take a little responsibility. Whatever you do. That's my personal thought."

"Speaking English dialogue is not easy for me. I am too lazy to learn English or speak any foreign language, so I am very grateful to my dialogue coach for helping me a lot."

"Huawei is a company, not a political entity. We aim to provide high-quality information services to humanity. With this ideal in mind, we work even in the toughest environments, such as high mountains, rainforests, and many remote areas in Africa."

"I can summarize the painful lesson in one sentence: We must not slack off or allow mediocrity, and we must remain dedicated and inspire passion throughout the organization."

"Is China a part of the world? Yes. Therefore, our insistence on globalisation also includes the domestic market. We cannot be closed. We must stay open."

"First of all, we must cooperate with sincerity. When there are difficulties, that means we have done something others cannot and proves our value."

"Ren Zhengfei’s initial career in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) shapes the ideological and operational framework for Huawei’s emergence. Although Huawei asserts it is a private enterprise owned by its employees via an “employee stock ownership plan,” [Eva] Dou highlights the complexities of this narrative, given Ren’s strong military connections and allegiance to the CCP. His role as a military technologist during the Cultural Revolution—an era when engineers were frequently marginalized—granted him unique credibility within the Party and introduced him to the values of secrecy and discipline that would later become integral to Huawei’s culture."

"Be straightforward and ask any questions you want. I will be very frank in my answers, including with any of your trickier questions. Don't worry. I like how frank Americans are. You aren't afraid to ask any question you want. I was a fan of the US when I was young. Today, I still believe the US is a great nation. Your advanced institutions, flexible innovation mechanisms, clearly-defined property rights, and respect and protection of individual rights have attracted the world's best talent to invest and innovate in the US. Billions of people have participated in this process. Without your openness, you wouldn't have been able to develop into the world's strongest power in just over 200 years."

"Huawei has no access to the data and we don't need the data. So from this point of view, what the US has been saying just doesn't hold up. It's like trucks. Trucks can be used to do bad things. What to transport in a truck is up to the driver, not the truck maker. You can't blame the truck maker for any bad things that are done using the truck. The same applies to us. We are like a truck maker."

"I hope people will forget me. It is a waste to remember me. I hope they can stop thinking about me. If they remember me and turn this into a game to see who is more loyal, that will turn into a burden. They can look into the sky when they remember me. I don’t want them to think about me and it is too tiring for them to remember me."

"We want to remain open minded, and keep pursuing economic globalization. Even if we are not taken out of the entity list, for some American companies, the things they sell are not important. Why can’t they sell them? Only a very small portion of U.S. products are related to security. If you prevent all companies from selling to foreign countries, this is not beneficial to the U.S. Should the ban be lifted one day, we would still buy from these companies."

"I've always been a pretty open person, actually, but I like to focus on internal management more than external publicity. I really get US culture, and many of our company's management systems were inspired by those in the US."

"Lenovo has been paying huge attention to technology innovation ever since I became the CEO. Even when I was not the chief executive, I was responsible for research and development. Many people may think Lenovo achieved its success through efficiency and execution. But constant investment in R&D and product innovation have been another crucial factor in Lenovo's success. Back in the PC era, we added a feature that made tablet access to the Internet just a click away. Our products are unique in design and address particular requirements. In fact, it is innovation that helped Lenovo score over competition."

"Our success is a combination of four things: first is right strategy and good execution. The second is innovative products and third is efficiency of our delivery. And finally the diversified global leadership team which understands the needs of different geographies. On top of that, in the last four years we have had a strategy of ‘protect and attack’. We protect our strength in our core geography and business, that is, China business and global enterprise business. And we attack with new markets with new products — like emerging markets."

"I hope that the Chinese government can open the Internet sector to the rest of the world, just like they did in the manufacturing sector. I am open to this idea and fully support it. However, I cannot speak on behalf of the Chinese government. These are just my own comments."

"I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts, that is my special key. I can use my unique martial arts in the film. But after a few years, I really want to do something different... like using martial arts to talk about peace."

"It’s possible that having a strong competitor would encourage us to compete better."

"We firmly embrace global supply chains. We welcome US companies to increase their supplies to Huawei, and will use their supplies wherever possible. This will ensure shared success between Huawei and US companies. If US companies are not allowed to supply their products to us, we have our alternatives. If those alternatives become mature and stable, I don't think it's very likely that we will go back to US companies."

"I am a Buddhist and sometimes I feel bad about children...when they see me walking on the street, they will shout 'Jet Li' [to do a few fighting actions]. In the beginning of course I was happy to hear that but after a while, I feel ...I think I have the responsibility to the young age, the teenager. I need to talk about more...because Chinese culture is not just martial arts, physical part... we have deep, strong philosophy and culture. I want to share some information, tell the worldwide audience, what kind of Chinese people... Not just say, you look Chinese people like Bruce Lee or everybody know martial arts and just know how to beat up others."

"Technology is increasingly complex. So technological expertise is more important than trust, because without expertise, products cannot be made, and trust will be meaningless. When a product is made, there will always be someone who will trust it despite what others say. Countries that have decided to use the product will find that it helps with their economic development, and this will remind everyone else that if they don't use this technology, they will be left behind."

"We can license technologies and production techniques. Whoever gets the technologies can develop new things based on them."

"Economic globalization can bring substantial benefits to all of humanity. This is because it will play a significant role in driving the optimal allocation of resources and reduction of service cost, thereby accelerating the pace of social progress. Economic globalization was a concept put forward by Western countries. Their guiding principle was to allow the West to trade their advanced technology and equipment for developing countries' raw materials and cost-efficient labor forces. This enabled global trade. But the West did not expect that developing countries would slowly begin to move up the value chain with production of low-end products."

"I personally believe that politics and the economy can be and should be separated."

"We want to transform ourselves from a PC market-share leader into a PC-plus innovation leader. This will ensure we have sustained growth, profitability, and the strong foundation to build a great global company that can last for generations."

"There's no way the US can crush us. The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit."

"Strategy. The industry is absolutely shifting toward mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, which are growing fast. But Lenovo has prepared for this shift for many years. Our belief is that we can address those markets as well as our core PC market. In the smartphone sector, for example, we’re number two in China; we’re in the top five now worldwide."

"If our engineers became politicians, Huawei would have collapsed. Engineers should focus on developing good products. They don't need to read about politics. What's the point of them caring about political issues? If our engineers are all out protesting, who is going to pay them?"

"Academic freedom is the foundation of innovation. The freedom to have different academic ideas and to study whatever you want is very important. Undoubtedly, the US has the world's most innovation-friendly environment. Thanks to the Internet, people have easier access to information. Science and engineering papers have nothing to do with ideology, so they can be published and shared all over the world."

"The Chinese government has already clearly said that it won't install any backdoors. And we won't install backdoors either. We're not going to risk the disgust of our country and of our customers all over the world, because of something like this. Our company will never undertake any spying activities. If we have any such actions, then I'll shut the company down."

"If the lights go out in the West, the East will still shine. And if the North goes dark, there is still the South. America doesn't represent the world. America only represents a portion of the world."

"There has been no step forward in history that has been easy. We have gone through many twists and turns in the past century."

"I think you really need to understand American culture, because everybody you meet says very nice things to you - you are great, you are brilliant, you?re amazing - I want to know is this true, or are they being polite? I really want to know, so I make my website to talk to the audience. They tell me the truth, they say, I like you in this, I don't like you in this. It's important. Because American people are so polite."

"We always think there are stories to do and we don’t think, ‘maybe this environment should be better’. We’ve always felt we could do anything we wanted. It was just based on what our priorities are."

"China also has this kind of problem ... China had the ‘women hold up half the sky’ revolutionary slogan — but the actual situation, the actual status of women — I think is a very profound issue."

"Laughable rumors. I’m not stepping back or stepping down. You could say I’m stepping up."