The way forward must be trilateral and multilateral

Speech by Abraham Liu,
Huawei’s Chief Representative to the EU Institutions

23 August 2019
Event: THE ROAD TO BIARRITZ: Huawei keeps pushing boundaries
Huawei Cybersecurity Centre,
Brussels

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for attending our event today to witness the launch of the world's fastest AI training chip and our next-generation AI computing framework. The innovative products will extend the benefits of AI to all, making it more affordable for all businesses and individuals at a faster speed. 
I would also like to take the opportunity to share some of my thoughts prior to the G7 this weekend. 

Pythagoras said that ‘three’ is the most beautiful figure in the world. I think this is true by nature. History tells us that a bipolar world does not tend to continue for very long – remember the Cold War polarization between the United States and the Soviet Union which tore Europe apart? - while trilateral and multilateral structures tend to develop steadily.

Huawei has just released the Harmony Operating System. Today we are presenting the world's fastest AI training chip, Ascend. There is a strong relationship between those two words, Harmony and Ascend. It is because of the harmony of the world in the past few decades that the global economy can ascend. Huawei's growth has also benefited from a generally prosperous global economy over the past three decades.

United States, Europe and China, are the three pillars of world science and technology innovation, and trade. These three entities have promoted the continuous growth of the global economy in recent times. And competition and openness, on a rational and orderly basis, will, I believe, allow the global economy to move forward dynamically and will stimulate much more innovation in the future, which will in turn bring about more benefits for consumers and society as a whole.

In the same way, you can say that networks, applications and data are the three key factors of the digital economy. Huawei has always focused on basic network infrastructure. We work with the market leadership of traditional industries in Europe and the continent’s huge talent for developing applications, focusing on solutions such as smart cities, smart manufacturing, and retail innovations.
 
Similarly, in the chain of industry, academia and research, Europe focuses on basic research, while Huawei focuses on the transformation from research and development to market. In the past decade, Europe has led the development and evolution of mobile communication standards. The prevailing European 4G standard is the result of a collective contribution by members, including Huawei, and adoption by the Chinese market. 

For the upcoming 5G era, we have innovative applications based on network characteristics; rational data protection, privacy and use under Europe’s GDPR, and; the future AI ethics framework the EU High-Level Group is currently working on with Member States. We now have reason to believe that the perfect combination of these three pillars – 5G innovation, data protection and AI ethics - will result in new development opportunities for the European economy once again.

In June, I was fortunate to attend and speak at the annual meeting of The Trilateral Commission. It struck me that Europe, as the earliest proposer of the separation of powers into three kinds - executive, legislative and judicial power - is more aware than anyone of the importance of a balanced and open environment for global development.

I believe that, from the perspective of industrial development, a market has to be made up of choices. If just one player has the exclusive right to speak, then this is not a fair choice for everyone. 

The United States has restricted Huawei because it wants to continue to be dominant in the hi-tech industry. If the global marketplace continues to allow the US to behave in any way it likes, it is sending a very dangerous signal. The whole world may gradually move from an orderly check-and-balance system to a riot of uncertainty, irrationality and chaos. The launch of Huawei’s Harmony operation system earlier this month provides another alternative for industry and consumers. We are keen to work with European partners on this open platform to nurture more European-oriented applications and services. 

Huawei has always believed in an open and balanced ecosystem. Only this can promote the vigorous, effective and continuous development of industry. 

I am sure that Huawei and Europe will continue to strengthen their cooperation not just here, but worldwide, and make their own efforts count towards the building of a prosperous digital ecosystem.

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