Chief executive officer (CEO) Ren Zhengfei has proposed selling the Huawei 5G technology to a Western company to address security concerns about its business.
Zhengfei said the buyer of their 5G technology can freely "change the software code" and allow it to address any flaws or supposed backdoor channels without the involvement of Huawei. The Huawei chief made the proposal during interviews with the Economist and the New York Times.
The US and Australia have banned Huawei equipment from their telecoms networks while the UK is yet to come up with a decision. The Chinese company has denied on numerous occasions accusations that it would enable the Chinese government to spy on or disrupt the other nations's telecoms systems, emphasizing that it is a private company owned by its employees.
Professor Steve Tsang from Soas University of London argued "Perhaps the explanation is that Huawei recognizes that it is unlikely to be able to bypass the efforts the Trump administration is putting into minimizing its scope to operate in North America, Western Europe and Australasia. 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." He added "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they can't do that, why would they want to spend tens of billions of US dollars on something that will quickly become out-of-date."
Zhengfei explained ""[Huawei is] open to sharing our 5G technologies and techniques with US companies, so that they can build up their own 5G industry. This would create a balanced situation between China, the US and Europe." He added "A balanced distribution of interests is conducive to Huawei's survival."
The move could also benefit Huawei if it could convince the US government to allow it to purchase US-linked technologies that are currently restricte, for its own use.
