Huawei's workers tell their stories of resilience, solidarity

A public letter titled "We, the Huawei people" from telecom giant Huawei detailing its employees' personal stories of solidarity and resilience amid restrictions from the United States, went viral on Chinese social media on Friday.

The letter was published by Xinsheng Shequ, Huawei's official employee community platform, on its Sina Weibo account on Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, the letter has received more than 190 million reads.

Chinese netizens have flooded the comment sections of Huawei's social media platforms as well as news outlets that have reported on the letter, many leaving the message: "Huawei, fight on."

The letter is a collection of short stories submitted by anonymous Huawei employees depicting how their lives have subtly changed after the US last week put Huawei and its affiliates on an "Entity List", which restricts the sale or transfer of US technologies to the company.

Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei, said on Tuesday that "not a single Huawei employee is fazed" by the new challenges. "We think it is rather normal."

Ren said there has been a lot of speculation and exaggeration regarding Huawei's situation. "If one wants to truly know what is happening in Huawei, please read our Xinsheng Shequ."

One of the entries by a Huawei employee said that his girlfriend had been quarreling with him because he often worked overtime, even during the weekends. However, after she heard about the US ban, she stopped fighting with him and promised to be supportive.

Another employee said family members changed their opinions about working for Huawei. "They had been constantly urging me to leave because I worked away from home and couldn't take care of them. Now, they want me to stay, saying one must grow a spine and leaving now feels like being a deserter."

Another entry said that some employees cut their lunch periods short to get back to work after hearing about threats and negative headlines from the US when eating at the cafeteria.

"I'm not sure if there is any company in the world that is constantly being threatened by the US with a gun to its head," it said. "Nobody is panicking, we just work harder."

The letter said these stories are the true illustration of the 180,000 Huawei employees, and represent the truest and deepest heartfelt wishes of every Huawei personnel.

Huawei confirmed the authenticity of the letter on Friday with China Daily, but would not comment more on it.

Chai Hua in Shenzhen contributed to this story.