– I don’t think you should buy goods and services based on political factors. Infrastructure-related products have long life cycles. If you fall behind at the start, it will be difficult to catch up.

These words come from Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the world’s largest telecommunications technology company, interviewed by NRK.

The state channel meets Zhengfei – along with several other Nordic media outlets – in the Shenzhen Free Economic Zone on the Chinese mainland. This is the first time he has allowed himself to be interviewed by the Nordic media. Ren Zhengfei told NRK that Norway, as a close ally of the United States, has no reason to fear Huawei.

Huawei is the world’s leading provider of mobile networks ahead of Ericsson and Nokia. The company, founded in 1987, has 188,000 employees in 170 countries, and in the first quarter of this year the company raked in more than NOK 500 billion.

– No reason to fear Huawei

– The large Chinese company has been going through a difficult period for the past year. It all started last December when Huawei’s CFO was arrested in Canada following an American arrest warrant. Following his arrest, Huawei was blacklisted by President Donald Trump and designated a security risk to the West.

Watch the video: You may not know this about Huawei:

Huawei is leading the way in the development of 5G technology and is the company that holds the most patents related to this technology, up to 20% of them. 5G is a technology for fifth generation mobile services and succeeds 4G, 3G and 2G.

Now 5G contracts around the world, and especially in Europe, are at stake. On Tuesday, October 8 of this year, it became known that Telia had abandoned Huawei in favor of Ericsson, which would now build Telia’s 5G network in Norway.

I think Norway will be the loser

The Huawei founder believes that 5G is part of a new industrial revolution and believes that Norway and other Nordic countries will be the losers of this revolution if they give in to political pressure.

– Operators make their own choices. They must take speed into account, because speed is essential to social progress. During the previous industrial revolution, European trains and steamships were faster than Chinese horses and carriages, so Europe developed faster than China, Zhengfei tells NRK.

Just a day before Telia’s choice for 5G was announced, Secretary of State Thomas McDermott of the US Department of Homeland Security warned Norway against building the 5G network with Huawei. The warning came during a visit to NUPI.

– The risk that foreign companies controlled by undemocratic regimes will be able to provide 5G to collect huge amounts of data on our citizens or be able to shut down critical networks at a later date of their choosing is simply unacceptable, says- he.

Huawei, for its part, has always rejected the American accusations.

Telenor has not yet chosen a provider for its 5G network in Norway.