Sorry child, worthy of Huawei, floating and sinking in the hearts of the people.

In 2019, when internal and external contradictions intensified, he said more words than in the past 30 years and endured much more highlights, pressure and rumors than other entrepreneurs.

Big countries are banned, enterprises are damaged, relatives are separated, and they cannot retire.

01. "what I am most sorry for in my life is my own child."

No surprise, Meng Wanzhou will spend the second Chinese Spring Festival in Vancouver.

Since her arrest in Canada on December 1, 2018, Meng Wanzhou's husband, daughter, mother and sister, as well as the Chinese Consul in Vancouver, have been able to visit and accompany her. Only Ren Zhengfei could not meet in person because of pressure from the United States.

The day after being arrested and imprisoned, Meng Wanzhou asked her husband to pass a note to Ren Zhengfei: dad, all the spearheads are aimed at you, you should be careful.

The family is like a frightened bird.

During Ren Zhengfei's transit travel since then, Mrs. Ren stayed up all night. She waited nervously for information from her husband's transit country, "have you left the country?" Did you take off? Is the meeting over?. "

Ren Zhengfei himself is not very afraid. He thought that if he had been arrested at the same time as Meng Wanzhou, "I happened to chat with her, so she wouldn't be so lonely."

In fact, Meng Wanzhou was preparing to resign as Huawei's chief financial officer (CFO) before his arrest.

CFO has always been the most powerful successor for CEO in European and American enterprises. However, when it comes to Ren Zhengfei, Meng Wanzhou is regarded as a regional general with no technical background.It is impossible to be the successor forever.

After slapping the table, being scolded, and announcing criticism, Meng Wanzhou was very unhappy at Huawei before he was arrested. Ren Zhengfei will only say when she is aggrieved: "the development in the past may have been too smooth to bear a little grievance."

The arrest in Canada revolutionized the relationship between father and daughter.

Meng Wanzhou in prison suddenly understood his father's age-old hardship and hatred. Six months after being grounded, she wrote in an open letter to all Huawei staff: "I have never had the opportunity to connect so closely with 188000 Huawei people."

"No matter how much difficulty and pressure I face right now, my heart can still be firm.”

As for Ren Zhengfei, who used to "do not call or send a text message once a year" with his daughter, he is now an old nagging man, making an overseas phone call to greet him when he is free, and sometimes transferring some funny stories online to Meng Wanzhou.

He began to recollect the anecdotes of his daughter's childhood and his extremely incompetent role as a father. "when I was young, my company was dying and often had little contact with my children for months, and I owed them. The most sorry thing in my life is my own children. "

Even so, during the nearly 400 days that Mr Meng wore an electronic anklet and was placed under house arrest under the close supervision of a security company, Mr Ren did not choose to negotiate privately with Canada and the US.

"We are confident that we have committed no crime and that Canadian law will enable us to win the case."

"(China) there are still tens of millions of people who have not been lifted out of poverty. If we want to give greater terms of trade to the United States, that is to trade the money of the poor in exchange for Meng Wanzhou's freedom. I can't pass it on my conscience. "

People are used to Ren Zhengfei's tough guy image. Even the love of calf has become a luxury.

In December 2019, Meng Wanzhou was placed under house arrest for a whole year. In an interview with CNN in the United States not long ago, Ren Zhengfei, a father, made a rare expression of his personal love:If Trump approves, I'd like to go to Canada (visit Meng Wanzhou).

02. "Huawei is at a critical juncture, and all its personnel are in a state of war."

Ren Zhengfei doesn't have time for a long love affair.

On January 28, 2019, the US Department of Justice sued Huawei on 23 counts including bank fraud. On the same day, the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) raided Huawei laboratory in California.

On May 16, Huawei was added to the list of entities of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Within three days, Flextronics, Huawei's largest US supplier, stopped production of Huawei equipment worldwide, withholding goods worth about 700 million yuan.

Within six days, Intel Corp and at least nine important Huawei partners gradually implemented the blockade in accordance with the US ban.

Within 30 days, Alphabet Inc-CL C stopped providing future Android updates to Huawei, Amazon.Com Inc stopped selling Huawei in Japan, Microsoft Corp revoked Huawei's Windows license, Facebook Inc stopped letting Huawei preinstall its programs, and FedEx Corp played hooligans one after another.

FBI, the Department of Commerce, the White House and other American public instruments are all on the battlefield. Completely cut off from basic components, storage, chips to the operating system. The United States made a national effort to encircle and suppress the nodes of Huawei, just before and after the spring launch, Flextronics and others were the core suppliers of Huawei's flagship aircraft.

Ren Zhengfei urgently declared Huawei a wartime state. Over the next few months, he staged almost textbook corporate self-help:

Set the morale first.

The unrest in ZTE after the sanctions taught Huawei a lesson in advance. In March, Ren Zhengfei led Xu Zhijun, Guo Ping, Yu Chengdong and other senior executives to hold a "Legion Battle" oath meeting. The loud slogan encouraged all the staff to win this turnaround battle! In April, Huawei released its first quarterly report in history, with mobile phone shipments surpassing Apple Inc as the world's second-largest. In May, it announced that Hayes chip had "become a regular employee". In June, it launched a talent recruitment program with an annual salary of 2.01 million yuan. In July, Ren Zhengfei turned a riddled fighter into a battle flag, calling on all his staff to "fight together to defeat the United States." in August, he released Hongmeng, and in September Mate30 brushed the screen.

In the first half of this year, Ren Zhengfei asked Huawei to take a closer look at the heroic works "Chongqing negotiation" and "the Last Battle of Zhijiang" several times. A few months after the ban in the United States, the young people of Huawei screamed that they wanted to write "blood books" to go to the front, military beds were laid out in the office, and employees' families frequently sent out "labor letters."getting married to marry a man" changed from ridicule to a kind of pride. Even the takeout boy wrote "Huawei come on!" on the takeout list of the employees.

As long as there is no decline in thinking, there are always more ways than difficulties.

The second most important thing is to make up the hole.

Ren Zhengfei took the lead, Huawei cut 48% of its R & D department within a few months, shut down almost all products that could not be dominated by non-main lines, and all engineers devoted themselves to the research and development of the main waterway to fight the main and peak battles.

Shrink in front and move reinforcements out.

After the US suppliers were picked up, Huawei executives quickly visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, the world's largest wafer foundry, who publicly stated that they would "not change shipments to Huawei", buying time for Huawei Hayes at a critical moment.

Flextronics, the "stab king" in Changsha, Hunan province, throws down a newly delivered super factory with an annual production capacity of 100 million Huawei equipment.

In times of crisis, China makes a move.

In June this year, Huawei's neighbor BYD in Longgang, Shenzhen, the only "invisible contract manufacturing giant" in the world with large-scale and full range of mobile phone structure and machine design and manufacturing solutions, the world's first nano-injection technology, the world's first shipment of metal components, and the first 3D glass / ceramic manufacturing in China-Huawei's nearest neighbor BYD in Longgang, Shenzhen, fully took over the Flextronics Changsha plant and tried its best to ensure the production capacity of Huawei's supply chain.

03、Said more things this year than in the past 30 years.

Ren Zhengfei's third battlefield is the media camera.

There was a joke in the industry that a foreign journalist waited for more than ten years to interview Ren Zhengfei and finally waited until he was about to retire, complaining that it was more difficult to interview Ren Zhengfei than to meet national leaders.

Huawei was founded 31 years ago, and in the first 30 years, Ren Zhengfei had recorded interviews with two hands. Ren Zhengfei's explanation for this is thatTheir own "incompetence"-do not understand technology, do not understand finance, do not know how to manage, or feel less humiliated.

Sounds like a social phobia.

In 2019, Ren Zhengfei, a "social phobia patient", probably said more than in the past 30 years. Live broadcasts, group visits, closed-door meetings and coffee conversations have been repeated one after another, and the media from the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Rifenno, Latin America, the West, the Middle East and Africa are open to all.

According to rough statistics, Huawei has received more than 3000 visiting media this year, and Ren Zhengfei has received nearly 50 interviews and speeches, an average of once a week. Can sort out at least two interview collections.

In the face of questions from thoughtful foreign media and hidden ingenuity, every tone and choice of words and sentences of Ren Zhengfei were forced to be taken at the diplomatic level.

Talk about 5G:

• "others will definitely not be able to catch up with Huawei in two or three years. At present, only Huawei in the world can combine 5G base stations with the most advanced microwave technology. At that time, it is not these countries that ban Huawei 5G, but ask Huawei to sell it. "

On the United States:

• "I can assure you that we can continue to develop at a high speed without supply from the United States. Huawei does not need the US to withdraw its entity list. However, we are always willing to work with American companies and always embrace globalization, and we will not take a closed path. "

Talk about technical security:

• "there is no law in China that requires companies to install back doors. Huawei is an independent commercial company, when faced with infringing upon the interests of customers, I would rather close the company, I sell the company to you! And will not be driven by interests to do things that should not be done. "

Talking about domestic public opinion:

• "Don't shout slogans, don't incite national emotions, don't narrowly say that using Huawei is patriotic, and if you don't use it, you are unpatriotic. Huawei products are just commodities. You can use them if you like them, and you don't need them if you don't like them. You mustn't fan populism. "

Talk about win-win cooperation:

• "(5G) can technology be licensed and transferred to Western countries? Yes, not in part, but in all. " "the economic basis of globalization is interdependence and cannot exist in isolation. We will always embrace American companies. Huawei's ideal is to provide services for all mankind and strive to climb the scientific heights.'"

As of December 2019, there were more than 300 topics about Ren Zhengfei on Weibo Corp, and Ren Zhengfei was the only entrepreneur on the list among Baidu, Inc. 's top 10 people of the year in 2019.

He became a national topic "out of the circle" from the business community. Every word and deed caused a hot search, took pictures on the street, had no place to drink coffee, didn't know where to go during the holiday, and "couldn't find a hole like a mouse."

At the cost of losing his freedom, the public relations effect he brought to Huawei cannot be measured.

In the past, Huawei was regarded by the West as a "panic" and "threat", a "secret agent of the Chinese government" who stole secrets and an oriental monster that hijacked the global telecommunications industry with a technological monopoly.

In 40 or 50 high-density interviews, Ren Zhengfei seized every opportunity to repeatedly explain Huawei's network security and never endanger the operational independence of customers, repeatedly explained Huawei's market posture of win-win cooperation, tolerance and openness, and even willing to open source 5G technology to the West, and repeatedly publicized Huawei's absolute superiority in 5G patents and base station construction.

In the end, he almost made his own efforts to turn the demonized Huawei into a well-known global leading communications giant, the number one in the world that can still dominate without the North American market. turn the symbol of "Ren Zhengfei" into "a tough guy fighting for ideas" in the Western context (time magazine), a "suffering hero" attacked by Trump and his sympathetic new world in the East.

The "best debater of 2019" is well deserved.

04、"I was going to retire."

On October 25, 2019, Ren Zhengfei was 75 years old. Thousands of miles away, Meng Wanzhou can only celebrate his birthday with a letter from home.

At an age when he could have been old-age, Ren Zhengfei became a fighter who worked more than ten hours a day, a public relations machine for hours of interviews, and a spiritual pillar for 180000 employees.

Without the US ban, Meng Wanzhou's arrest and the physical list, Ren Zhengfei, who has gradually faded out of Huawei's specific affairs, is likely to retire as safely as his peer Liu Chuanzhi.

"I was ready to retire, probably because the United States always suppressed us and gave me motivation."

Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo Holdings, said in an interview before his retirement that Ren Zhengfei was more adventurous than I was.

The real Ren Zhengfei may not be as strong as he looks.

Over the past year, he has worked hard to keep his words and deeds and emotional will from being destroyed. She wept silently after receiving a phone call in the middle of the night; when answering some questions, she would stare at Chen Lifang, Huawei's vice president in charge of public relations, and his media relations assistant, who nodded before they could continue.[1]

Ren Zhengfei, who once suffered from depression, used to call Sun Yafang when he felt he couldn't live. Sun Yafang resigned last year, and no one knows who Ren Zhengfei is looking for as a psychological counselor.

In the face of the ban in the United States, Ren Zhengfei is first of all a business manager, and then a father, husband, and the elderly in their twenties.

In Huawei's 33-year entrepreneurial history, he has experienced numerous critical moments, such as divorce between husband and wife, falling in love with each other, the death of his mother, the dying of the enterprise, and the forced landing of airplanes. 2019 is not the most dangerous and closest year to death, but it is destined to be the year with the widest impact, the greatest responsibility, all kinds of halos, pressure and rumors.

In November, it was revealed that Huawei's "Li Hongyuan incident", a former employee who had been detained for 251st days after being reported by Huawei about 300000 severance payments, led to a reverse mass defection.

Like the Meng Wanzhou case, Huawei handed over right and wrong to the law. Unexpectedly, it aroused even greater criticism.

"Huawei without empathy makes people afraid."Patriotic propaganda will only make you sick."Ren Zhengfei's exploitative features are being uncovered."it can make you a hero or trample you underfoot."

Ren Zhengfei experienced a magical bipolar world in the last month of 2019. Warriors become dragons, heroes become public enemies.

He encountered a lot of slander and saliva, but he got a calm that he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Huawei has been red and purple for some time in the past. If everyone hacks Huawei, Huawei's color will turn gray and restore its true color-Huawei's true color is gray, which is full of contradictions, not red and purple."

He's talking about Huawei, and he's talking about himself.

People and enterprises who survive from hell are far more afraid of being killed than being ignored.

After a year of highlight projection and facial mapping, Huawei and Ren Zhengfei in 2019 wake up in the cold of deep winter, which is the best way to return to zero in this boiling year.