Huawei Technologies founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei has whipped up a storm on Chinese social media after he was seen with disgraced Chinese classical pianist Li Yundi, when they visited the telecommunications equipment giant’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan over the weekend.
Ren, 79, accompanied Li on a tour of the European-themed campus – the Shenzhen-based company’s research and development base – according to photos and videos circulating on various Chinese social media platforms. Both wore casual attire during their visit.
The photos and videos sparked discussion on Chinese social media, as netizens were puzzled about Ren’s jaunt with the musician formerly known in China as the “piano prince”, who was arrested and briefly detained in 2021 by the police in Beijing on suspicion of patronising a prostitute.
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“Li’s appearance is so unexpected, and I can see controversy brewing,” a user wrote on microblogging service Weibo.
Employees are seen at Huawei Technologies’ picturesque Songshan Lake research and development campus in Dongguan, southern Guangdong province. Photo: Reuters alt=Employees are seen at Huawei Technologies’ picturesque Songshan Lake research and development campus in Dongguan, southern Guangdong province. Photo: Reuters>
Some Weibo users described Ren’s meeting with Li as “inappropriate”. One commenter wrote: “It’s natural to hold a public figure to a higher standard, and they should pay the price for making a mistake.”
Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The negative publicity received by Ren, one of the best-known Chinese tech industry leaders, for meeting Li is in stark contrast to the public goodwill the low-profile Huawei leader earned for his efforts to overcome US sanctions after Washington added the company to a trade blacklist in May 2019.
Before this Li brouhaha, Ren last made a public appearance on June 5 during a visit to Sichuan University in southwestern China, where he said that US-sanctioned Huawei is working closely with universities around the world on basic theoretical research to “overcome its shortcomings”.
Huawei Technologies founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, centre, in conversation with disgraced Chinese classical pianist Li Yundi at the company’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan. Photo: Weibo alt=Huawei Technologies founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, centre, in conversation with disgraced Chinese classical pianist Li Yundi at the company’s Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan. Photo: Weibo>
Other Weibo users defended Li by pointing out that he had already paid the price for his past mistake. “We should be more tolerant about Li for his rare talent, and Ren has set an example,” a user wrote.
Li rose to international fame at age 18 in 2000 by winning the prestigious International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, which is held every five years in Warsaw, capital of Poland.
He was widely discredited in China following his misconduct and stayed away from the public limelight. Li, however, remained active on social media and regularly shared updates this year about his latest tour in Europe.
Ren met Li during Huawei’s annual developer conference last week, where the company pledged to break the dominance of Western mobile operating systems in the country with its self-developed HarmonyOS.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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