(Yicai) Sept. 20 -- US sanctions on Huawei Technologies serve as both a pressure and a motivation for the Chinese telecoms giant, according to founder and Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei.

Before the sanctions, the company built its basic technology platform in the United States, Ren told university students who participated in the International Collegiate Programming Contest last month, according to a transcript published online yesterday.

Afterward, it was forced to switch to another platform, which was difficult, he noted. But after four years of hard work from 200,000 employees, the Shenzhen-based firm has established its own platform, which may not run on the same basis as the US platform, but they will certainly be interconnected, Ren pointed out during his talk.

“I heard you’re an Apple fan,” a participant from Iceland said, to which Ren replied that he was not exclusive because his daughter studied in the US and it would be inconvenient for her to attend classes without Apple products.

Huawei often explores “why Apple’s products are so good,” Ren said, which enables it to see the gap between the two tech firms. “We cherish the opportunity to learn from and compare with Apple,” he said. “You can call me an Apple fan in that sense.”

Ren also touched on why Huawei attaches importance to basic theoretical research, on which the privately-held company spends about USD3 billion to USD5 billion every year.

The boundary between science and technology is getting smaller, and the time for transforming science into technology is shortening, he said. If technologies are not developed until universities fully understand the theory, first-mover advantage and competitiveness is lost, Ren stressed.

Ren spoke with participants in the International Collegiate Programming Contest, an annual multi-tiered competitive event among the world’s universities, from Aug. 21 through Aug. 26. Huawei is the general sponsor of the ICPC.

Editor: Martin Kadiev