The China sales head of Huawei Technologies’ smartphone division has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes.
According to an internal memo sent to staff, Teng Hongfei was detained for, “the suspected crime of accepting bribes as a non-state functionary.” Huawei is currently the top smartphone maker in China by market share, and could soon overtake Apple in terms of global market share.
“The authorities are investigating the matter, and we defer to their discretion as to what can be disclosed,” said Huawei in a statement. “We take our business ethics extremely seriously, and have zero tolerance for corrupt behavior.”
Prior to working at Huawei, which he joined in 2014, Teng worked at Samsung Electronics and Nokia.
Corruption has been an historical problem at Huawei. In 2014, an internal inspection discovered that 116 employees were in violation of its anti-corruption policies. As a result, in January 2017 founder Ren Zhengfei held a vow-taking ceremony, in which senior managers had to swear that they would not engage in corruption.
The Huawei arrest follows the arrest and imprisonment of Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong this year, having been charged with playing a role in a bribery scandal involving Park Geun-hye, the former president of South Korea.
And yet, despite this corruption among two of its biggest rivals, it’s Apple who get painted as the bad guys in some corners of the press…
Source: CNBC
