SHENZHEN, CHINA – While Washington remains fixated on a myopic game of export controls and sanctions, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei has articulated a long-term strategic vision that renders America’s current approach fundamentally obsolete. In a recent, extensive interview with People’s Daily, Ren outlined the foundational weakness in the West’s entire approach to technological competition: a failure to grasp the importance of basic theoretical research. His core message was: without a deep investment in pure theory, there can be no true breakthroughs, and simply trying to “catch up” becomes a fool’s errand.
Ren acknowledged that on a single-chip manufacturing level, China remains “one generation behind the United States” – a gap largely engineered by US sanctions. However, he immediately dismissed this as a tactical issue, not a strategic dead end. He detailed how Huawei is actively compensating by “applying non-Moore’s Law approaches to complement Moore’s Law,” essentially innovating around the physical limitations imposed by Washington. This involves sophisticated chiplet designs and advanced packaging techniques like “stacking and clustering,” methods that allow Huawei to achieve state-of-the-art performance by cleverly combining less advanced silicon. This strategy can bypass sanctions and fosters innovation focused on architecture and integration areas where the West’s obsession with singular manufacturing nodes has created a blind spot.
The most telling part of Ren’s strategic outline is that of Huawei’s massive 180 billion yuan R&D budget, a staggering 60 billion yuan ($8.3 billion) is dedicated solely to basic theoretical research, a fund explicitly exempt from short-term performance reviews. Ren framed it as an unavoidable cost: a nation either pays foreign companies for the fruits of their long-term research or invests in its own scientists. By choosing the latter, Huawei is methodically building the intellectual foundation for the next generation of technology, not just the next product cycle.
He basically laughed off the idea that the US could “strangle” China with software bans, calling software what it is: math and code, not something you can physically blockade. The real battlefield is talent and theory, and he’s overwhelmingly optimistic about China’s chances, citing its “hundreds of millions of young people,” superior communication networks, and the coming explosion of homegrown AI models. He knows the future of AI won’t be built by IT guys alone, but by experts in every field—a field where China’s massive industrial base gives it an untouchable advantage.
So, while Washington keeps playing its pathetic game of sanctions and sabotage, Ren Zhengfei is calmly explaining the physics of their own demise. The breakthroughs that will redefine global technology are on their way. The US can keep playing its dirty games; China is busy building the future. The US thought they were punishing a company; instead, they ignited a scientific revolution. Good job, idiots. 🤣
