USA vs. Huawei: Huawei speaks ahead of the Mate 30 launch

Dominik Bärlocher

19.9.2019

Translation: machine translated

Before the launch of the Huawei Mate 30, the company made announcements about the near future of the company in an orchestrated event.

There are still a few hours to go until the official launch of Huawei's hotly debated flagship, the Mate 30 Pro and its smaller siblings. Journalists from all over the world are invited in groups to a so-called "pre-briefing" or "pre-event". At Huawei, this means that company representatives speak to journalists. They expect statements on the matter with the USA, as US companies are currently not allowed to do business with Huawei. This was decreed by the Trump administration in May 2019.

But I'm not expecting much from the event now that I'm writing these lines in the Munich restaurant and event venue Mace. I'm not allowed to film or take photos. The photo above is a snapshot I took before the show started. I'm not allowed to ask questions either. It sounds very much like everything is rehearsed, that the event is actually more of a performance and less of an information event.

But I might be surprised by the line-up of Huawei suits. Just be warned: all the information in this article should be viewed with a certain degree of scepticism. I'm extremely cynical about such events anyway. It's usually more about saving face and not about spreading information. But sometimes you can read a lot between the lines.

Babble at the beginning

Walter Ji, Huawei's President for Western Europe, takes the stage. He says that he is not here to talk about the Mate 30. But he wanted to talk about how Huawei turned 32 years old on 13 September.

The journalists are taking pictures, I'll do that too.

The anecdote about the group's history, which was probably intended to be touching, continues. Shenzhen is mentioned, the currency fluctuations of the Chinese renminbi and the integral part that Huawei plays in China's economic growth. Under any other circumstances, this would be an interesting story. If Huawei had its usual "hold my beer" moment, it would be funny. Today, however, journalists are waiting to learn more about how Huawei plans to fight back against the trade embargo with the USA.

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But while I'm taking my time with these lines, Walter Ji comes to the 2000s. He mentions the company's creativity. He mentions innovation. He mentions that Huawei is responsible for connecting a third of the world's population. He mentions all the PR messaging that acts as a front for something that is very turbulent behind the scenes.

Ah yes, the customers are what matters most to Huawei. This message must not be forgotten. The belief in significant innovation and open collaboration. The latter two statements could be dismissed as sabre-rattling, but seem a little shy and cautious.

Growth despite the trade war

It only gets interesting when Walter Ji gets to the key figures. In the course of 2019, the overall business grew by 23%. 24% more smartphones were delivered. But now the sabres are really rattling. This is because the USA wants to sabotage Huawei's business with its sanctions, slow down the company, which is making dangerous progress, and at the same time strengthen the US domestic market.

This is not working, says Huawei.

The European market is strategically the most important, says Walter Ji. Not only when it comes to smartphones, but also when it comes to supplying 5G and other network infrastructure. "Our commitment in Western Europe is a long-term one."

Is Walter Ji telling the USA what he thinks of them? As this event is organised down to the last word, his announcements are approved from the very top. It's not so much a person speaking up front - at Huawei, only Richard Yu, President Mobile, is usually spontaneous - but rather a company. Indirectly, he is saying: USA, get warm. We'll just take the rest of the world.

An admission at last

Walter Ji is followed by Andrew Garrihy, Huawei's Chief Marketing Officer. For the first time, he mentions something that points to problems. "Challenging times", he says, demanding times. But then he goes straight into the innovations and features of Huawei devices, announcing "more". Of course, it should not be forgotten that Huawei also has a social commitment.

He mentions Storysign, an app that translates children's books into sign language. The reason is that many hearing-impaired children struggle with reading and learning. Storysign exists to counteract this. So far, this has worked with 66 books. And 500,000 dollars have been invested in aid projects for the hearing impaired in Europe. Storysign is also coming to iOS.

Before the event, journalists joked about whether Huawei would also be showing beautifully presented videos. Yes. The videos are coming. It's about a family from Italy. Their daughter Giulia is deaf and Storysign makes her life and education easier. I can't find the video on YouTube, but the style is like this:

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And that's it. A journalist says "What?" out loud and says what I think.

This briefing feels like something between damage limitation and self-congratulation. Of course, not everything is as okay as the people on stage would have us believe. After all, companies that are doing well and have no problems don't organise orchestrated events in which they say that everything is fine.

At the end, a French journalist says "la qualité du bullshit était extraordinaire."

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.