A media tour through Huawei Technologies Co.’s sprawling campus in Shenzhen, China begins in the opulent executive hall, where prospective customers and foreign executives are brought to discuss exactly what services the telecommunications giant can offer.

Huawei Technologies Co., a historically closed-off Chinese telecommunications giant with notoriously reclusive executives, has tried to change its tone in recent months and wants the world to know that it’s just like any other successful company in the West.

“If Huawei was born in the West, I think our story would be no different from the growth stories of Microsoft, Google and Facebook,” Huawei’s rotating chairman Eric Xu told four Canadian journalists gathered at the company’s sprawling and immaculate headquarters in Shenzhen, China last week.

“There is no difference between Huawei and other Western global companies. We call ourselves a company that brings together the wisdom of the East and the professional management systems of the West… We are no different from Western companies, in terms of professionalism and process-based operations.”

The notion that Huawei is different from other companies, operating under a different set of rules – perhaps even at the behest of the Chinese government – is something the company outright dismisses and is trying to dispel in part by opening its doors to foreign journalists and making its executives available for interviews.

But proving that Huawei is just like any North American company may be a daunting task, given the criminal charges the company currently faces in the United States, an ongoing effort by U.S. officials to convince other countries to join it in banning the use of Huawei technology because of security concerns, and the deteriorating relationship between Canada and China following the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

View photos Huawei Technologies Co Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrives back at home after her court appearance in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Ben Nelms More

Huawei has repeatedly denied accusations that it has close ties to China’s ruling Communist Party, or that its technology provides a potential backdoor for espionage. During last week’s roundtable discussion with Canadian journalists, when asked about what Huawei would do in response to a hypothetical request from Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese government, Xu pointed to statements previously made by company founder Ren Zhengfei.

“As to whether Huawei would do that, our founder has made Huawei’s position clear on a number of occasions. We definitely won’t do it,” Xu said. “As he puts it, if Huawei were compelled to do so, he would rather shut the company down.”

Xu also said the company would not violate laws and regulations in the countries in which it operates, which includes Canada.

Scores of journalists have been shuffled through Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, a modern and technological city that, in the 1970s, was a small fishing village home to 30,000 people. Then, in 1980, it was designated a special economic zone that allowed foreign investment. Growth exploded and the city now has a population of 12 million.

Huawei’s welcoming of journalists marks a drastic shift for the company, which for years shunned media attention and kept executives away from any spotlight.

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A book about the company that can be spotted on the shelves outside the roundtable meeting called Huawei: Leadership, Culture and Connectivity. It reiterates just how much of a culture shift such media tours are for Huawei. Handed out to journalists during the visit, the book is written by a member of the Huawei International Advisory Council, and it is reflective of the story the company wants the world to know.

‘Like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand’

“Huawei’s chance of success would be cut in half were the media allowed to meddle in the process. Fortunately, Huawei was able to remain level-headed and shy away from the media for nearly a decade,” the book says.

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