by Xinhua writers Jin Jing, Zhang Jiawei
LONDON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China's tech giant Huawei will continue to make innovation the "core" of its strategy while remaining open to collaboration, a Huawei senior executive has said.
In an interview with Xinhua, Huawei Senior Vice President Victor Zhang said that as a global leader in 5G, the company started research and development (R&D) in the field a decade ago, well ahead of many competitors.
According to Huawei, it has already won 50 5G contracts globally and 2,570 patents for 5G, ranking first in the industry.
"We are the leader in 5G, not just because of the products, but also the core contents. For example, we have our own 5G chips set and software," said Zhang.
Due to pressure from the United States, the British government has yet to make a final decision on Huawei's role in the country's 5G construction.
Zhang said Huawei agrees that 5G network infrastructure needs to have the highest standard for mitigating security risks and Huawei has been complying with all that.
"It's good for the market, good for business and Britain's future development," Zhang said, adding that he believes that the British government will make a sensible and informed decision based on its evidence-based methodology.
As a company that has been operating in Britain for 18 years, Huawei appreciates that the country has "a very open market, a very free trade policy, and a very good business environment," Zhang said.
Despite the British government's pending decision, mobile network operators Vodafone and EE have switched on their 5G networks in the country, both using Huawei equipment. The operators have warned that excluding the Chinese firm would lead to a lengthy delay in the 5G roll-out and raise costs of 5G construction.
Huawei's confidence and competitiveness come from the company's long-term investment in R&D, said Zhang, adding that the company invests at least 10 to 15 percent of its global revenue in R&D each year.
According to a list of the European Commission ranking the top R&D investors for 2018, Huawei ranked fifth globally, beating Apple and Facebook. Huawei spent 15 billion U.S. dollars on R&D in 2018, according to the company's annual report.
With R&D centers already established in Russia and Germany, Huawei plans to invest in a new R&D center in Cambridge, which will be Huawei's global center for its full fiber strategy.
"If you are the number one leader, you need to have your own technology to support the leading solutions for satisfying your customers and meeting their requirements," Zhang said.
On China-U.S. trade frictions and their impact on Huawei, Zhang said that thanks to the "dual source strategy for all the components" which Huawei adopted ten years ago, Huawei's 5G will not be affected.
The senior executive said that for the United States, excluding Chinese tech companies like Huawei will be "a lose-lose solution."
"We can't control the American decision and American government, but I think any restriction or ban for selling to Huawei or to China is a lose-lose solution," said Zhang. "Actually, it has a very big impact on the American companies. So it isn't in their interests from a commercial perspective."
Zhang believed that in the era of globalization, no company should or needs to develop all the technologies along the supply chain by itself, and the only win-win solution is cooperation.
What's more, he believed that because of globalization, there is no company today whose products' components were all completely produced by itself. "So our strategy is we are very open and welcome all the best technologies we can use to serving our customers to bring value to our customers," said Zhang.
"So I still believe the win-win solution is cooperation, so we must be open to embracing the new technology from a global source, rather than close the door and rely on in-house research and development," he added.
(Xinhua reporter Larry Neild in London also contributed to this story.)