Closer Look: My Three Encounters With Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei

Editor’s note: The world’s largest telecom-gear maker Huawei has been facing its worst-ever crisis in recent weeks after the arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada and U.S. attempts to push its allies to ban Huawei products in the name of security. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, who kept a low-profile before and after he had a rare interview with the BBC in 2015, met the media in mid-January to reiterate Huawei’s commitment to customer privacy and security. Ren has been widely respected in China as a courageous entrepreneur who created the company from scratch in 1987 and made it into the global firm, with more than $100 billion revenue expected in 2018. Caixin Global republishes the following story written by Caixin founder Hu Shuli in 2015 to give our readers a better understanding and insight into Ren.