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Huawei's Ren Zhengfei's Send Off to Honor + Tweets of the Week
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Huawei's Ren Zhengfei's Send Off to Honor + Tweets of the Week

Baby Yoda Eats Dim Sum, 'Love is a Hot Potato', Ming Dynasty Cards Against Humanity, Stealing Dings and Calligraphy

Nov 27, 2020
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Huawei's Ren Zhengfei's Send Off to Honor + Tweets of the Week
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Last week, Huawei announced that it would sell off its Honor brand, the lower end counterpart to its flagship Mate and P series. Last year, I translated a deep dive into the origins of the Honor line, which has grown into one of the world’s most successful smartphone brands raking in annual revenue in the order of tens of billions.

On November 25th, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei sent out a letter at the Honor farewell party that I translated below in full. It provides a fascinating window into his management thinking and has received praise across the Chinese internet. The letter is a brief encapsulation of his worldview, reflecting his views on management, competition, and even relationships and parenting. It reads a bit like, as Wang Feng described it, a “chatty dad at the train station” as their kid leaves for college. I got a bit of a Polonius ‘To Thine Own Self Be True’ vibe. There are a ton of mixed metaphors (see this thread for evidence of the pain I endured translating this) that would not have made it past a speechwriter, leading me to believe Ren wrote this himself.


We are set to part, after having been together for more than ten years, and it pains me. We are living in interesting times, but also in a most difficult period. We started out as just a small seedling, yet these two years of storms did not break us, and through these tribulations, we may very well end up blossoming and flourishing. [Alternatively, ‘through these tribulations, we grew into an iron tree, and iron trees can end up blossoming.] But there is nothing to send you off, except for the yellow leaves blown off the ground by the autumn wind.

Why Strip Away Honor?

Huawei has been under waves of severe sanctions from the U.S., making us finally realize that some U.S. politicians are not trying to have us correct our ways, but rather simply to kill us. As far as Huawei's short-term difficulties, we can endure alright. But we don't want to drag innocent people down with us because we are suffering. Work for agents and distributors in 170 countries has dried up because of the lack of water in the channel, which will lead to millions of people losing their jobs; the suppliers are also backlogged because we can't make purchases, and sales are down, dragging down the stock price.

What have they done wrong? Why can't we take on some of their burden? After all, you [Honor employees] are the ones who go with them to make the dried-up channels full of water when the water supply is not cut off. But you are not saviors, you have to maintain the right attitude of religious devotion to your customers, faithfully protecting their interests, and sincerely respecting commitments to your suppliers. The spirit of [respecting] contracts is the basis of your invincibility. Honor is the production of medium and low-end products, after the divestiture of Honor, the leadership of the company will be able to quickly resume production, solving the challenges of upstream and downstream partners.

We have been together for more than ten years, and our strict management has transformed your group of young and romantic intellectuals into hard-working "warriors." In the past, some of our methods were too harsh [literally 生冷, raw and cold, usually used to refer to food in China like carrots which are rarely eaten raw], and for that, I apologize. With the same reluctance, I bid you farewell today.

How To Handle This Well

The first thing to do is to restore the supply channels as soon as possible, because if the channels are dry for a long time, the grass will dry up and it will be difficult to restore life. ‘Water, Water Water’ the Dai ethnic group shouts, showing just how important water is to life.

The Dai Water Splashing Festival – Cultural Keys

Embrace global industry resources and build relationships with suppliers as quickly as possible. Supply is a very complex and multifaceted issue that is more difficult for you than it is for any other new company. Overcoming this issue will be the opportunity to show yourselves for the heroes you are. Insist on learning from the best, including those you don't like.

Steadfastly embrace globalization, and strengthen your embrace of British, American, European, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean companies. The U.S. is a global technology powerhouse, and many of its companies are excellent.

You have to maintain the good traditions you have formed, and your managers and specialists have to be globalized, specialized, and diversified. In addition, aside from localizing staff, you have to decentralize carefully, taking care to avoid the creation of fiefdoms that don’t listen to orders from the center. [A little window onto how he thinks about managing Huawei’s international expansion…]

A reasonable system to let employees go is a complement to positive incentives that energize the whole team. You need to respect people, evaluating them in a scientific manner, while continuing to hold them accountable.

Keep your eyes on the prize, insist on action and innovation, never allow the team to gradually fall into disorder.

Become Huawei’s Strongest Global Competitor, Aim to Surpass Huawei, So Much So That You Shout “Overthrow Huawei”

Insist on improving yourself, and work hard in the right direction; insist on making the organization vibrant, so that employees have a strong will and desire for victory. Resolutely oppose internal corruption and all acts of corruption and theft. Adhere to the beneficial habits and systems of the past, the process of scientific and comprehensive management of the team, and calmly march forward. There will be setbacks, don't panic. Give more play to the power of collective thinking, bold decisions, and do not take arbitrary action. Move forward as one.

Today is our "divorce" ceremony, so I won't dwell on that. Once the "divorce" is final, we shouldn’t still long for each other anymore. We are adults, we can deal rationally with the separation, in strict compliance with international rules, for each of us to achieve our own goals. [Ren is on his third marriage]

You can't be like a newlywed, constantly playing hot and cold, too involved and without clear boundaries. Don't feel sorry for Huawei, go think about your future! We will soon be competitors. You can hold "foreign guns" and "foreign artillery" [aka foreign chips and Android], while we hold the new "Hanyang 88" [the Chinese-made bolt action rifle, referring to domestic technology] and the new "sword and spear.” Who will come out on top? We won't be polite to you. If one of you yells “overthrow Huawei,” that makes you a hero, and under no circumstances take it easy on us.

China Twitter Tweets of the Week

Kicking things off with a tweet of the year contender…

Twitter avatar for @Stand_with_HK
Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong. 重光團隊 @Stand_with_HK
Hong Kong Political Compass Where do you fit in this 6x6 grid?
Image
6:31 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
1,003Likes529Retweets
Twitter avatar for @paulmozur
Paul Mozur 孟建國 @paulmozur
As Chinese officials hung thousands of cameras across Xinjiang, an abiding question has been how they process all that footage. We found an answer. They're using one of the world's fastest supercomputers. And it was built with American microchips.
nytimes.comChina’s Surveillance State Sucks Up Data. U.S. Tech Is Key to Sorting It.Intel and Nvidia chips power a supercomputing center that tracks people in a place where government suppresses minorities, raising questions about the tech industry’s responsibility.
3:44 AM ∙ Nov 23, 2020
1,559Likes1,096Retweets

Thread

Twitter avatar for @yuanyi_z
Yuan Yi Zhu @yuanyi_z
The Oxford vaccine's dad right now:
Image
8:01 AM ∙ Nov 23, 2020
1,139Likes88Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lnachman32
Lev Nachman @lnachman32
Important Taiwanese current events and political issues that are not Cross-Strait related: 1. US pork imports 2. Taiwan's healthcare quickly running out of money 3. Constitutional reform to change voting age to 18 4. KMT trying to rebrand its image as pro-Taiwan 1/n
5:18 AM ∙ Oct 6, 2020
169Likes43Retweets
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
I don't usually do anything post-Han, but this is too good not to share. Ming Dynasty Cards Against Humanity:
Twitter avatar for @moghilemear13
邦尼王子查理 @moghilemear13
"一令要千家诗一句,下取大明律一句断之" 明代酒令真有趣 https://t.co/DNQQVdUEEw
2:45 PM ∙ Nov 25, 2020
115Likes43Retweets
Twitter avatar for @moghilemear13
邦尼王子查理 @moghilemear13
"一令要千家诗一句,下取大明律一句断之" 明代酒令真有趣
Image
2:42 PM ∙ Nov 25, 2020
80Likes12Retweets
Twitter avatar for @ourobororoboruo
Frankie Huang @ourobororoboruo
Happy Thanksgiving y'all, here's bb Yoda eating har gow
Image
8:50 PM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
320Likes37Retweets
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
lol stealing dings is as trad as it gets
Image
5:04 AM ∙ Nov 21, 2020
40Likes5Retweets
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
Sure, the terracotta warriors are a neat project, but their weapons are - for my money - way more interesting. (1/n)
Twitter avatar for @HelenWangLondon
Helen Wang @HelenWangLondon
"Bronze Weapons of the Qin Terracotta Warriors: Standardisation, craft specialisation and labour organisation" - by Xiuzhen Li (BAR, 2020) https://t.co/pfkq5xluma HT @WenYiHuang1 https://t.co/OAkwc9U1kA
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
28Likes9Retweets
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
For one thing, they show how ancient quality control worked. Each blade is engraved with the names of the people responsible for it, from the worker who made it, through the factory boss, right up to the Chancellor (there are Li Si and Lü Buwei blades in the museum).
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
This meant that if you were a soldier and got sent into battle with duff kit, you at least knew exactly who to track down and sue/punch in the face when you got back.
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
This may not seem like a big deal, so look at it like this: when was the last time your Head of Government told the army that they should come back and personally express their displeasure if things didn't work out as planned? Imagine that in Iraq.
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
Another interesting thing is that they're made to standard patterns, but the alloys differ slightly by batch. This is because the army did not centralise weapons production (unlike many things). There were multiple independent semi-private factories supplying the government.
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020
Twitter avatar for @StatesWarring
WarringStates @StatesWarring
This meant that you got the benefits of standardisation *and* of free market competition. Any soldier could use any weapon, but the factories competed to make better alloys. Also, because the workshops were modular, they could follow the armies on campaign.
4:48 AM ∙ Nov 26, 2020

Here are the names of the craftsmen on a spearhead!

Twitter avatar for @cma_chinese
CMA: Chinese Art @cma_chinese
Spearhead, 1045-256 BC clevelandart.org/art/1915.619 #cmaopenaccess #clevelandart
Image
4:02 AM ∙ Nov 27, 2020
5Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @ham_calligraphy
HAM: Calligraphy (Bot) @ham_calligraphy
"Because of the void everything is possible. Without the void nothing is possible.", Written in Bold Black Script, Fung Ming Chip, 2009 harvardartmuseums.org/collections/ob… #calligraphycollection #museumarchive
Image
10:29 AM ∙ Nov 22, 2020
40Likes20Retweets
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