Exclusive interview with Liang Hua, Chairman of Huawei + Internet from space • China.Table

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Dear reader,

US sanctions forced the telecommunications group Huawei to completely reorganize itself. The smartphone division, which until that point had been very successful globally, had to take such a strong hit, that an expansion into new business areas was necessary. Frank Sieren spoke with Liang Hua, CEO of Huawei. The topics were exciting – whether the geopolitical conflict between China and the USA will potentially lead to two independent tech spheres and different standards, what measures will be taken to reduce CO2 emissions of data centers, and which technology fields the company wants to increase its focus on in the future.

The issue of differing standards and inefficient duplicate structures even seems to extend to space. Gregor Koppenburg and Jörn Petring have analyzed China’s plans to build a satellite internet. Beijing plans to launch 13,000 satellites into space for this very purpose. SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon are pursuing similar plans. Experts already fear space collisions with this many satellites in Earth’s orbit. But the issue of space debris is already of significant concern.

And a lot has happened on a geopolitical level over the weekend: The US blacklisted more Chinese companies and EU foreign ministers are pushing for an alternative to the New Silk Road.

I hope you enjoy your read and i wish you a good start in week!

Your
Nico Beckert

Feature

“Data centers need to become more power efficient”

Despite the political confrontation between China and the US, Liang Hua, Chairman of the Board of Huawei, does not expect the world to split into two technological systems. He sees the fight against climate change as a major challenge. “Data centers need to become more power-efficient,” Liang said in an interview with Frank Sieren. Huawei wants to score points here, especially with artificial intelligence and renewable energies. In the automotive sector, Huawei aims to become a tech partner, but does not plan own models, Hua said. In Europe, Huawei wants to in particular cooperate with small and medium-sized enterprises in the future.

By
Frank Sieren

Frank Sieren: Mr Liang, is the geopolitical power struggle between the US and China now leading to the emergence of two technological standards? The Europeans view this with great concern. Hardly any other company suffers more from this than Huawei.

Liang Hua: I think standards will continue to unify globally. Global networking is moving humanity forward. This can only happen with open cooperation and common standards. The big trend, beyond politics, beyond currently opposing currents, is clearly going heading in this direction.

Even with Huawei’s 5G technology? Huawei may indeed expand its global market leadership. The world is divided over the use of Huawei’s 5G equipment, both for data security concerns and geopolitical reasons.

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