It is not the first time Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei is praising Apple, considering the iPhone-maker a teacher, leader, and mentor. This time, however, surrounded by international concerns over privacy, security, and even national security, Huawei is looking at Apple as a role model for its own privacy policies.

Red Zhengfei said, in a recent interview with the Financial Times, that should the Chinese government ever ask the company to unlock smartphones or provide users data, Huawei will not do it, protecting the privacy of its users.

We will never do such a thing. If I had done it even once, the US would have evidence to spread around the world. Then the 170 countries and regions in which we currently operate would stop buying our products, and our company would collapse — Ren Zhengfei

Zhengfei believes that user data is owned by the users, not by the company. “Carriers have to track every user, otherwise no phone calls could be made. It’s a carrier’s duty to track user data. We, as an equipment provider, don’t track any data“, he added.

Touching upon the topic of the U.S. ban, Zhengfei said that the United States’ concerns over privacy are baseless. “I don’t know why the US government micro manages its tech companies as much as they do. They act like a mother-in-law, and if they get too involved, their daughters-in-law might run off“, he concluded.