Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei has admitted that its Ascend chip family is not as powerful as Washington thinks. As reported by its parent publication, Global Times, Zhengfei said this during an interview with the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The story itself was published on the front page of the newspaper on June 10, 2025, reflecting the importance of what the Huawei CEO said to the party and to state policy.
The second question the interviewer asked Zhengfei was about the U.S.’s crackdown on Huawei’s Ascend chips that allegedly violate export control and its impact on the company. “There are many companies in China making chips, and many are doing well; Huawei is just one of them. The U.S. has exaggerated Huawei’s achievements — the company isn’t that powerful yet,” said Ren. “We need to work hard to live up to their evaluations. Our single chips still lag behind the U.S. by a generation.”
This is a massive admission for a Chinese company that’s one of the key players in China’s ambition of global technological dominance; more so that it was done right on the front page of the CPC’s primary mouthpiece. Given that the People’s Daily is directly controlled by the party (not by the Chinese government), it’s often considered a tool that helps shape public opinion, share party policies, and even be used to gauge domestic feedback and the reaction of the wider international community before Beijing implements official changes.
China has been adamant for years that the U.S.’s bans on its technological sector won’t affect its progress, with China’s president telling the Dutch PM last year that it does not need ASML. However, no country is an island — and even if China does not or could not export its goods to the U.S., it still needs an international market to ship its goods and services to. Aside from that, this interview is a rare event where Beijing is strategically showing vulnerability, especially as the restriction set by the White House on the Huawei Ascend processors seems to have far-reaching consequences going beyond the borders of the United States and its allies.
The two countries had recently been at loggerheads over tariffs, with both one-upping each other until the import duties hit 145% for Chinese goods entering the States, and 125% the other way around. Thankfully, both sides began feeling the pinch, with trade representatives of both countries finally meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, for some high-level discussions. They eventually reached a trade deal, with the tariffs dropping to 30% and 10%, respectively.
Aside from that, this interview might be a sign that Beijing is ready to offer a few compromises with the U.S. on some issues. For example, the U.S. banned the export of electronic design automation software to China — a crucial tool used to design chips for manufacture in TSMC and other fabs. This restriction was lifted soon after a high-level call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, though.
This isn’t to say that China doesn’t have an ace up its sleeve. The country is one of the biggest suppliers of rare earth metals needed for chip making, and it has restricted its exports as a response to Trump’s tariffs. Without them, the semiconductor supply chain would hit a snag, making it difficult, if not impossible, for fabs to continue making chips at current cost. Nevertheless, the country has recently started easing these export limits for domestic and European chip firms. It could be that China is willing to make a major concession, like giving U.S. companies access to its rare earths once again, in exchange for Washington not sanctioning Huawei’s customers.
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