Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei has admitted that its Ascend chip family is not as powerful as Washington thinks. As reported by its parent publication, Global Times, Zhengfei said this during an interview with the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The story itself was published on the front page of the newspaper on June 10, 2025, reflecting the importance of what the Huawei CEO said to the party and to state policy.
The second question the interviewer asked Zhengfei was about the U.S.’s crackdown on Huawei’s Ascend chips that allegedly violate export control and its impact on the company. “There are many companies in China making chips, and many are doing well; Huawei is just one of them. The U.S. has exaggerated Huawei’s achievements — the company isn’t that powerful yet,” said Ren. “We need to work hard to live up to their evaluations. Our single chips still lag behind the U.S. by a generation.”
