Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei: "Apple is my teacher, why should I oppose my teacher?"

This, according to the founder of Chinese technology giant Ren Zhengfei.

In an interview with the Bloomberg agency, Ren said that he would be the first to oppose the reaction of Beijing to Apple.

Although in China, a kind of citizen boycott of Apple products has already begun to be detected in response to the US-Huawei conflict, which has only intensified in recent weeks.

Despite this, the government of the Asian country has shown no sign that it will take action against the famous apple company.

The experts consulted by BBC World also see this possibility far away, even though they do not rule out that Apple is suffering the consequences of a consumer boycott encouraged by the state press.

"He is my teacher"

In the interview with Bloomberg TV, Ren was calm and stressed the importance of Apple, one of its competitors, in the technology sector.

"Apple is the world leader, if there was no Apple, there would be no cell phones with the Internet, if Apple had not helped us to see the world we could not see its beauty, "he said.

The Cupertino company, founded by Steve Jobs, marked the path of Huawei, which is currently the largest technology in China and the second largest seller of smartphones in the world.

"Apple is my teacher … As a student, why should I oppose him? I would never do it," he said.

Despite the conciliatory tone regarding Apple, which has surpbaded sales in China, the founder of Huawei has been shown much more critical with regard to Washington.

Change of strategy

The Trump government has banned its companies from dealing with Huawei for reasons of "national security" because of its alleged links with the Chinese government.

Several major companies have announced the break of ties with the Chinese giant, including Google or Qualcomm.

Ren acknowledged that Washington's measures could weigh on his advantage in the sector, but insisted that the company would survive.

"If some companies do not want to work with us, it's like a hole in a plane, we are working to repair that hole, but the plane is still able to fly," Ren said.

The businessman has notably mentioned a possible change of strategy with regard to chips used by the company: half of them come from American companies, the # Another half is produced by the company itself.

"If the US imposes more restrictions, we will reduce the purchase of US chips and use more of our chips," he said.

For the successful businessman, who previously worked as an engineer in the Chinese army, "the United States is not the international police".

"They can not handle the whole world, the rest of the world will decide if they have to work with us, based on their business interests and their position."

Ren also responded to the company's criticisms, which they claim have gained an advantage in the sector thanks to theft of intellectual property and the help of the Chinese government.

"The United States did not develop this technology, so where would I steal it?" Said the founder in reference to the 5G, an area in which Huawei has years ahead of the rest of technology, according to experts.

"We were ahead (…) otherwise, Trump would not make as much effort to attack us, he attacks us because we are more advanced than them." (BBC)