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(Wen / Yun you Xiaosheng)
Source: pure smile (ID:keeppuresmile)
On May 15, 2019, American politicians banned Huawei from the ocean.
A year later, the United States imposed another ban: manufacturers that use American technology and software chips need to obtain permission from the United States before supplying certain chips to Huawei.
Some people say that Huawei is not listed, and it is too difficult for the United States to invade Huawei.
But we can't watch China take the lead in 5G construction, and even if it seems undignified to sanction a company with state power, the United States has no other way.
Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, who only began an interview last year, said: the US crackdown was two years earlier than expected.
Since I am doing cross-border business, I am ready for this day.
From hungry chaff to entrepreneurs who make American politicians afraid, Ren Zhengfei runs into the world, turning himself into a green hill and firewood.
You know, fate is not tolerant of Ren Zhengfei, and even often beat him with sticks and sticks.
His life used to be obscure.
Only books managed by Huawei are displayed silently in bookstores; Huawei's management strategy is interpreted over and over again in business school classes.
It was not until my mother died that half of my life's suffering came to the surface.
Only China's best entrepreneurs admire Ren Zhengfei.
And the folk is always full of criticism.
00 alive
Far away in the mountains of Guizhou, there is a small town called Zhenning.
The Red Army passed by the long March, with hundreds of thousands of mountains and vast jungles, endless mountains to raise their feet, and land where grain could not be produced by bowing their heads.
It is more than 20 kilometers from Zhenning County to Huangguoshu Waterfall. Places with beautiful scenery are poor.
How poor are you? Hungry!
In the autumn of 1944, Ren Zhengfei was born in Zhenning, the eldest with six younger brothers and sisters.
Ren Zhengfei was 5 years old in the year of the founding of New China.
The hearts of the people are exhilarating, and starvation is real. Post-war China was broken, with nothing but inspiring hearts and minds.
The grain in the rice jar is carefully distributed to ensure that everyone can survive. If one person eats one more bite, maybe one person will starve to death.
Hungry can not stand, and caught up with the college entrance examination, Ren Zhengfei grabbed rice bran to eat.
Caught by his father, after a period of time, he can eat a small piece of tacos every day.
I don't know where the tacos come from, but I just know that they are food extracted from the mouths of the whole family.
Liu Chuanzhi wrote about starving when he was a child:
I was so hungry that I remembered that there was a box of traditional Chinese medicine in the drawer that was Lingqiao jiedu pills. I took two pills. A few hours later, I had a seizure, cramps and a splitting headache.
The whole country is starving, and no one cares about the teenager Ren Zhengfei in the poor mountain village.
The bed was covered with straw. As soon as I turned over, I could hear the rustling sound between the leaves of the grass.
Every year, even a single piece of cloth issued by the state is not enough to make a new shirt, there is no cotton, and two or three people are huddled together in a quilt.
After graduating from high school, his mother cobbled together and sewed out a bunk sheet, and Ren Zhengfei carried the bedding roll on his back to Chongqing to go to university.
As soon as I went, I ran into the most painful years in China.
02 scars
In 1966, the beginning of the decade of havoc.
My father's face was painted dark and he wore a high hat on his head. He was tied to the street to parade, and his waist could not straighten up.
Mother kept silent and didn't say anything about it in the letter.
When he learned about the situation at home from his countrymen, Ren Zhengfei, who dared not make it public, rode the train all the way back to his hometown.
He was grabbed and beaten by the rebels on the way and got off the train.
I don't know how many times I was beaten, how many times I picked up the train, walked dozens of miles of mountain road in the dark, pushed the door open, and only saw a place in a mess.
Mother, brother and sister, like men, dig sand in the cold mud and carry soil in mountains that can collapse at any time.
The father, who was respected in the past, was taken care of by the rebels, humiliated and coolie.
Life and dignity tremble in the cold breath.
Father still has the final sobriety, urge Ren Zhengfei to go back to school quickly, go back to school to study, do not get involved in right and wrong.
For Ren Zhengfei, his father is a man who understands the truth of all things in the world.
He took his father's shoes and returned to Chongqing. Then came the great fighting in Chongqing, which shocked the world.
Because the father of the capitalist group, Ren Zhengfei is not qualified to participate in such activities.
Former teachers and principals were dragged off the podium and left barefoot on the road. Classes have stopped, he can only study by himself, computer, digital technology, automatic control, finished science and engineering, began to study logic, philosophy, and learned three foreign languages.
When he was in pain, he quietly picked up the selected works of Mao Zedong and read it again and again.
For the first time, he had a clear understanding of the pain.
Once again, he looked up from the pile of books and was no longer a childish nerd.
In the year of graduation, Ren Zhengfei met his first wife, Meng Jun. It is rumored that his father-in-law is the governor of Sichuan province.
The cause of the rumor is that, as the son of the capitalist faction, Ren Zhengfei could not be assigned to serve in the army, but he wore a military uniform that everyone envied in that "prosperous era."
Ren Zhengfei's infrastructure unit is actually a construction team in military uniform.
When he worked as a messenger in the infrastructure army, he worked hard with cabbage and pickled radish during the day, slept on straw at night, and read all the books he could read.
A technician once described the advanced inspection equipment he saw abroad. Ren Zhengfei deduced the design of the instrument and developed China's first "air pressure balance" according to the results.
He became a representative of scientists in the people's Liberation Army, but various honors and awards passed him by and did not join the party.
Except that his comrades-in-arms verbally called him "a pacesetter to learn from Chairman Mao's works."
Just like when we mention a person today, we all say that he is a "good man".
In October 1976, the dream of the Gang of four was broken.
The whole country is jubilant, those who are alive are in their places, and those who are dead are vindicated.
People are busy making up for lost time and everything else. Not only to recover, but also better than before.
Before his father was rehabilitated, the leader approved Ren Zhengfei to join the party and attend the National Congress.
The photo taken with the central leader was placed in a big frame and hung high on the wall at home, and the parents smiled proudly.
Those honors that could not be won by no matter how hard they worked before flocked to Ren Zhengfei overnight.
"pacesetter, hero." He accepted the prize, turned around and gave it to his comrades-in-arms.
After being left out of reach for many years, everything that was out of reach is no longer lovely.
At that time, he already had a son and a daughter. His daughter's name was Ren Wanzhou (after his mother's surname) and his son's name was Ren Ping.
My daughter once shouted, "Dad, if I don't go to college, you will be responsible for my future!"
03 leopard transformation
In the spring of 1979, Deng Xiaoping held out his hand and drew a circle on the map.
The upsurge of reform and opening up is slapping this once imprisoned country like waves, and the myth of wealth is falling from the sky every day.
In 1982, the army was disarmed. Ren Zhengfei was assigned to a military scientific research base, and without accident, he will have an infinitely bright future.
His daughter's voice upset him. As family members of the army, their sons and daughters have been transferring schools with the army for 14 years. What should be done to give the family a future?
After several struggles, Ren Zhengfei still chose to leave the army, which devoted his entire youth, and transferred to the local area.
He set his sights on Shenzhen and worked as a manager at the Nanhai Petroleum Logistics Service Base.
People who just got out of the army are fools, that's what people say.
Ren Zhengfei was cheated by a trading company for 2 million yuan.
If you owe a debt since ancient times, you can either pay it back or die.
Parents as far away as Guizhou hurried to Shenzhen, eager to support their son to tide over the difficulties.
There are old at the top and small at the bottom. Ren Zhengfei looked around and saw only the white eyes of the dead fish in the basket and the picked leaves.
In 1965, the United States developed the world's first computer-controlled telephone exchange, the program-controlled exchange, which became the mainstream equipment of the world telecommunications network.
However, China's technology in the communications market is a blank.
The war of guns is over and the war of science and technology has begun.
Smart people pour all kinds of switches from RTHK, resell them or affix their own labels. Huake boss Xu Ruihong got a batch of goods, found a group of students to assemble and label them in Zhongguancun, and earned more than 20 million in one summer vacation.
Ni Guangnan, who is still in Lenovo, is thinking about how to develop his own program-controlled switch.
Ren Zhengfei, who is still in the system, is acutely aware of the importance of this technology.
He felt that state-owned enterprises had an unshirkable responsibility and immediately applied to the board of directors for the establishment of a "digital program-controlled exchange research and development group."
In the years when the per capita salary was less than 100, he spent 1 million in the first year and 2 million in the second year, and got nothing. He wanted more money.
People are sure Ren Zhengfei is crazy.
He was fired and didn't have to pay back the millions he owed. The leader just wanted to stay away from this madman.
Ren Zhengfei left an IOU and left: I will certainly return the money.
In 1987, Ren Zhengfei borrowed 20,000 yuan, found five friends and set up Huawei in a humble hut.
This year, Ren Zhengfei was 43, well past the age of going up to the mountain and going to the bottom of the oil pan.
There are no backers to rely on, no means for things to happen. At first, Huawei sold tombstones, diet pills, and alarms for a period of time.
During that time, the whole country shouted "market economy", and the government, enterprises and service industries were all improving their service facilities.
The market for switches is springing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, with sharp teeth, leading to the growth of more than 200 enterprises selling switches in China.
Ren Zhengfei got an agent for the HAX switch of Hongnian Company in Hong Kong, and when it was most popular, the company was out of stock.
In 1992, Haiwang Building, a landmark in Nanshan, Shenzhen, was completed. The king of Shanghai in the building holds a Trident and drives his horse into the air.
In 1992, 40 million people flowed into Guangdong. As soon as this land is an adult, it has gone through many vicissitudes.
After returning from his first trip to the United States, Ren Zhengfei decided to develop the latest digital switch.
If you succeed, you will share the money; if you fail, brothers will go and I will jump.
Ren Zhengfei still wanted to raise pigs, but he didn't have enough money, so he had no choice but to do it.
Zheng Bao, a doctor from Tsinghua University, with his younger brother Li Yinan, handed over Huawei's first batch of switches.
That year, Huawei's sales exceeded 100 million.
Not everyone is patriotic and domestic, and Huawei is not as good as B in technology.
Ren Zhengfei has a team that can bring champagne to talk about ideals and roll up trouser legs to dig the ground.
To live, behind these three words, everyone can write a history of blood and tears.
Perhaps in addition to money, can move a person most, is the most illusory dream and ambition.
04 to live
In 1992, the postmaster of a county learned to drive and got a driver's license. Wait in line for a year before you can get in line.
A director of Huawei's resident office borrowed a new car everywhere and sent it to the postmaster's home to accompany him to practice driving.
The snow in the driving range had just melted and the director sank into an ice pit with a foot throttle.
The Huawei director took off his shoes and socks, jumped into the cold mud and pushed the car out of the ice pit desperately.
Some people found out that a leader was coming by plane, so they pretended to be a pick-up enterprise and sent the leader to the Huawei showroom.
There are also people who cover all the household chores of all the leaders of the telecommunications bureau, leading their children to college and going down to their homes to change gas tanks.
I didn't dare to be vague when I went to great lengths to get the contract.
Motuo in Tibet is cold and anoxic, and the land is sparsely populated. Wang Wenzheng, an employee of Huawei, climbed four snow-capped mountains for eight days and eight nights, carrying the parts of the tower on Mount Qomolangma.
If a person is empty-handed, without wealth, power, morality and appearance, he will rise to the sky overnight, and he cannot just eat clean food!
Living is Huawei's philosophy.
In the 1980s, as soon as the door of China was opened, international giants poured in. The domestic communications market has become a roast duck on other people's tables.
Huawei's first rivals are Lucent of the United States, Ericsson of Sweden, Siemens of Germany, Bell of Belgium, Nortel of Canada, Alcatel of France, NEC of Japan and Fujitsu.
That battle was later given a name, the Seven Kingdoms and eight Systems.
Huawei is in an awkward position. Others are mature technology and equipment, Huawei is only a fledgling low-end.
The school elites recruited are good at theory, but they haven't even seen a real switch.
The salary could not be paid on time, and some people took the year-end bonus and ran away.
Thieves often turn into the office and steal new products developed by air conditioners.
The worst thing is that there is no money.
Ren Zhengfei, who borrowed a loan shark, pointed to the window and swore to jump off the building if he didn't succeed.
The first batch of C&c08O digital program-controlled exchanges were sold to Yiwu Telecommunications Bureau, either crashing or disconnected.
Ren Zhengfei and Zheng Bao took the development team straight to Yiwu.
24 hours, two shifts, personnel are divided into two sets, rotate to do debugging.
Cold weather, wear two pairs of socks, two coats, often short circuit, difficult to drink a mouthful of hot water.
It was not until a few years later that Ren Zhengfei withdrew his last staff stationed in Yiwu.
In other places, the head of the project team often goes to the telecommunications bureau, and the task is to be scolded in the past and make the leader happy.
People say that Huawei sells third-rate products to second-class services and first-class markets.
Huawei's marketing department said that it is to scare the customers, shock them, and give me the contract.
It is easy for others to be open, but it is really not something that everyone can do.
The business school class talked about Huawei's management secrets over and over again, and Ren Zhengfei waved his hand:
Huawei doesn't have philosophy, and I don't study philosophy myself. All of Huawei's philosophy is to be customer-centered and create value for customers.
Chinese people can't talk about managing enterprises without Inamori Kazuo, and Jack Ma has to make a special trip to Japan to see this old fairy.
However, in the eyes of Ren Zhengfei, who also has a technical background, Kazuo Inamori built the core of three Fortune 500 companies by himself, not by philosophy, but by his cutting-edge technology and first-class talent.
Without technology and talents, management philosophy is a flower on cow dung.
05 people's wealth
Despite the fact that Ren Zhengfei goes out to take economy class and wait in line for a taxi, he is worth hundreds of millions and goes out like an ordinary person.
He spends so much money that even executives who are used to the world are distressed.
In 1999, Huawei grew up and became a big company, with annual sales of 2 billion yuan.
After a tour of the United States, Ren Zhengfei decided to ask IBM to help Huawei do a set of process management system, and IBM quoted 2 billion.
Senior executives were distressed and advised Ren Zhengfei not to spend this unjust money. If he really wanted it, he had to bargain.
Ren Zhengfei asked: if you cut the price, can you be responsible for the risk?
Later, Huawei paid 2 billion yuan and asked someone to transform the office of the IBM consultant into an IBM-like style, just to make the consultants feel at home.
To use Ren Zhengfei's consistent understanding is:Sentient beings are too bitter, you have to make others happier before they can help you.
An IT practitioner in Zhongguancun talked about what he knows about Huawei's sales stimulus:
There is a hill of cash on the table. If you want to take it away, go to the market and sell more Huawei products.
There is also a research and development incentive law:
A newcomer leads a team to do semiconductor development in Sweden. Over the past two years, the research results have filled the scientific gap with a series of five-level salary awards.
At Huawei, you can't even find an excuse for not meeting talent.
In 2019, Huawei offered an annual salary of 2 million. Caused a lot of people from all walks of life to jump, people turned upside down and quarreled.
Huawei is really willing to spend money.
When CCTV interviewed Ren Zhengfei, the old man said excitedly:
We begged the developed countries to sell us high technology. As a result, I bought it and opened it to see that there were Chinese eggs inside.
These are the eggs laid by our Chinese chickens in foreign countries. We paid customs duties and spent a high price. Why can't you let your chickens lay eggs in your own house?
Let them make more money, let them shine to the country!
Then why can't foreign scientists come to China to lay eggs?
Since the United States attracted so many talents from Eastern Europe at that time, why can't we?
Give them a happy life and let them come to China to lay more eggs.
Like the United States, how can this country not blow up when it attracts talents to China?
If you support people, you have to take care of the food, and there is no one who gives orders to others in vain. Only when we have no worries about food and clothing, can we concentrate on research and talk about ideals.
In 2003, Cisco Systems, an American company, sued Huawei for infringement on more than 20 counts of software theft and illegal plagiarism.
During the most difficult period, Ren Zhengfei planned to sell Huawei to Motorola.
The acquisition plan was confirmed and the letter of intent was signed. Motorola backed out that it was too expensive to buy Huawei for $7.5 billion.
Huawei and Cisco Systems finally reconciled in 2004.
Since the beginning of this year, Ren Zhengfei has set aside $400 million a year to develop chips without even throwing a splash into it.
Executives are worried about money, and he says:
The chip is useless for the time being, and we should continue to do it. This is the company's strategic banner and cannot be moved.
In 1992, in Shenzhen, Ren Zhengfei went northward to recruit people, and some people said, "even if there are too many people, there is nothing to do." Ren Zhengfei scolded, "if I ask you to recruit, you can confess. You have nothing to do, or you can bring in to wash sand."
The United States has imposed sanctions on Huawei, which has pulled out the "spare tire" chips and systems it has developed for many years.
People boast that Ren is really wise and prepares in advance.
But turning the clock back, he raised a group of people to spend money on research and development, without a dime of profit for several years.
In the eyes of others, he looked like a madman at that time.
06 countries and the world
In 1974, T.D.Lee said that China should cultivate a small but sophisticated team of basic science workers.
Yao Qizhi, who won the Turing Award, was determined to leave the United States and went to Tsinghua University to teach a group of undergraduates basic computer theory.
With Ren Zhengfei, who survived Huawei, he wayward recruited thousands of mathematicians, physicists and chemists to give them the best treatment and asked them to study basic science.
Peel off the flowers on the surface, the basic research is the cow dung under the flowers. This pile of cow dung is exactly where the United States is confident of fighting a trade war.
Huawei has made its own chip and its own mobile phone system. The chip is named Kirin and the system is named Hongmeng.
The whole country is celebrating.
However, the machines and technologies used to make chips are still American.
Politicians who play with politics, just a few days ago, a document, all companies using American technology, no longer dare to cooperate with Huawei.
It's like Microsoft Corp suddenly shutting down all computer operating system services.
Alphabet Inc-CL C stopped all mobile Android systems.
Adobe Inc stopped all PS and industrial design software.
Some people lament: Huawei is going to be killed this time.
During the epidemic, dozens of European 5G base stations were set on fire.
The epidemic is not over, and some people in the UK have shouted that Huawei equipment will be completely removed from the 5G network by 2023.
Ren Zhengfei said again and again: Huawei is an international company. Huawei sells a naked device that has no ideology on it. The device is controlled by the operator, not Huawei.
Scientists rise up again and again: science knows no national boundaries.
However, the competition between countries is the competition of science and technology in the final analysis.
When the whole country braved patriotic heat and proudly slammed Apple Inc into Huawei, Ren Zhengfei said faintly:
Just because you don't use Huawei doesn't mean you're unpatriotic. My daughter uses Apple Inc.
He tried to play down disputes and prejudices and try to appear neutral.
Ren Zhengfei wanted to retire and find a university to study mathematics, thermodynamics and the origin of the universe.
He didn't study thermodynamics, but he was stabbed on the stage by the United States.
Hiding half his life, perhaps Ren Zhengfei never dreamed that today he needs to sit on the bank of success in high spirits and explain Huawei and himself to the world over and over again.
In the 31 years from the founding of Huawei in 1987 to 2019, Ren Zhengfei gave no more than 10 interviews.
The Hurun rich list put Ren Zhengfei's name on it and immediately received a letter from a lawyer.
The State Council commended the vanguard of reform, selected Ren Zhengfei, and repeatedly asked for cancellation.
In the press circle, Huawei Park is notoriously difficult to enter; Huawei people are notoriously difficult to interview.
National paper is expensive, so don't waste it on our small companies, Ren Zhengfei said.
In 2019, daughter Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada.
The sanctions of the United States, like kitchen knives flying in the air, are chopped up in the face.
Having kept a low profile for most of his life, Ren Zhengfei, who is nearly 80 years old, had to stand up and smile and sit calmly in front of the world.
When asked about his detained daughter, he smiled and said, "I will call and tell jokes."
Sandwiched between the two superpowers, Huawei has become the banner of melee, and the daughter has become the bargaining chip of the game.
Why is home?
In 1995, Ren Zhengfei's father died suddenly.
At a street stall in Kunming, after drinking a bottle of drink he had just bought, my father began to have diarrhea until he died of exhaustion.
Six years later, my mother had a car accident.
Passers-by took their mother to the hospital. When she did not see her mother coming home for dinner, her sister and brother-in-law looked around and found that her mother was already in the hospital.
Ren Zhengfei is accompanying Hu Jintao in Iran. Two days ago, he laughed at his conscience and visited his mother, whom he had not seen for a long time.
Received a phone call from my mother who was critically ill and ran all the way. When she came to the door of the ward, my mother had already given up and left.
His sister told him that his mother had quietly saved tens of thousands of yuan for him, fearing that in case of failure one day, the money would save him.
Ren Zhengfei wrote a long article, word by word, about the past of his parents, about those painful days mixed with tears and rice bran and pickles and humiliation.
He said he was too selfish.
When sons and daughters were young, Huawei faced life and death and ran around all day; when their parents grew old, Huawei was busy expanding and still running around.
I want my family to live a happy life from now on, but I keep missing it.
Happiness never stands in line, but misfortune likes to jump the queue.
In 2000, Love turned Li Yinan away, took away hundreds of Huawei people, and almost knocked Huawei down by setting up another door.
Huawei is going to be wiped out, its employees are going to lose their jobs, and they can't survive. Cisco Systems of the United States is clamoring for infringement, and the lawsuit has been going on for a year.
Mournful wind wrapped in cold rain, slapping is desperate to die.
Ren Zhengfei suffered from severe depression and woke up crying in a nightmare. After crying, I had cancer surgery and did it twice in a row.
At this point in life, there is no need to explain why someone committed suicide.
Until one day, a group of peasant girls on the prairie were spinning and singing, and Ren Zhengfei cried for a long time in the restaurant.
Wanting to die is driven by a series of despair, and wanting to live is just a turn in a thought.
Later, Ren Zhengfei carried a large white enamel jar with lost porcelain. Wang Yukun joked: "this is a cultural relic."
Ren Zhengfei took a sip of water and said, "my mother gave it to me." With that, he gently put the big white enamel jar on his chest.
Write at the end:
Now Ren Zhengfei looks cold and shrewd, with all the qualities of a successful businessman.
Among his contemporaries, some lived in prison, others lived in poverty, and there were few who could live above the rest of the world.
The bitterness and absurdity in the middle, sometimes even the parties are in a trance.
And those unspeakable, unspeakable, unspeakable gray, like the orange moon in the sky, cast a dim light and shadow in the night, too dark to open their eyes.
After all, Bull B is for others, only bitter B is their own.
(disclaimer: this article only represents the author's point of view, not Sina's position. )