When we think of the world’s growing billionaire class, it’s usually Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos who spring to mind. But of the 2,640 billionaires on the planet, 495 are Chinese. Only the US with 735 has more of these strange creatures. While Ren Zhengfei was unceremoniously bumped off Forbes’s list this year, demoted to a mere multi-millionaire, Huawei, the company he founded, remains one of the largest and most important in the Chinese economy.
What makes Zhengfei stand out among China’s mega-wealthy elite however, is his devout support of the Communist Party’s brand of nationalism as well as his tendency towards blunt utterances. He famously claims that if there was a conflict of interest between the company and the party he would choose the latter because to him, it represents ‘the principle of serving all human beings’. Music to the ears in Beijing.
