Remarks by Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Huawei, delivered on 23 May 2019 at the Potsdam Conference on National Cybersecurity (Germany)

May 23, 2019

[Potsdam, Germany, May 23, 2019] In recent days, restrictions, based on ungrounded allegations, have been imposed on Huawei in order to disrupt our business operations. We believe this behavior is totally unjustified.

In Europe, approximately three-quarters of smartphone users rely on an Android-based phone. Huawei accounts roughly for 20% of this market. Such reckless decisions can cause a great deal of harm to consumers and businesses in Europe.

Huawei Deputy Chairman Ken Hu Speaks at the Potsdam Conference on National Cybersecurity

This sets a dangerous precedent. It goes against the values of the international business community, cuts off the global supply chain and disrupts fair competition in the market. This could happen to any other industry and company in the future if we don't jointly confront these issues.

I am honored to speak at this beautiful campus of the University of Potsdam. When I arrived earlier, I was told that we are at a historic site where the Berlin Wall once stood. This reminded me of the fact that we don't want to see another wall and we don't want to go through another painful experience. Equally, we don't want to build a new wall in terms of trade, we don't want to build a new wall in terms of technology either. We need an integrated global ecosystem which can help us to promote faster technological innovation and stronger economic growth. Ultimately, it is what we have to rely on in order to maintain prosperity for human society.