Huawei mocks US ‘loser’s attitude’

The face of China’s rise to compete internationally in high-technology industries had 100 billion reasons to brag on Friday, touting a huge revenue breakthrough, while at the same time taking shots at the US government.

Chinese telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics maker Huawei announced that its revenue exceeded $105 billion, a first for the company that is now on par with the likes of Microsoft and Google in that category.

The milestone was reached thanks to soaring sales of its smartphones – despite the fact that the devices are effectively locked out of the US market.

The company’s rotating chairman, Guo Ping, characterized US attempts to paint Huawei as an arm of the Chinese government as a desperate effort to hold them down.

“The US government has a loser’s attitude. It wants to smear Huawei because it cannot compete against us,” Guo told reporters gathered at the company’s headquarters, per Reuters.

“Countries that choose to work with Huawei will gain an advantage in the next wave of growth in the digital economy,” he added.

But despite Huawei’s breakout growth in the smartphone market, the company’s carrier equipment division did see a drop in revenue over the previous year. Huawei ascribed this to industry investment cycles.

An ongoing US-led campaign to get governments around the world to block Huawei from providing equipment to mobile network providers stalled this year, with countries in Europe declining to ban the gear. But Australia and Japan have already instituted rules that will restrict the gear from being used, while a report issued by the UK this week found “significant technical issues,” related to the security of Huawei products.

Huawei’s top legal officer, Song Liuping, reiterated Huawei’s oft-used talking point regarding potential security risks in the press conference on Friday.

“Spying would be equal to suicide,” Song said. “We have no intention of committing suicide.”