Allaying clients' NSA concerns is 'tiresome', says Huawei chief

Chinese giant's co-boss downplays negative impact on business, but claims spying revelations are 'increasing workload'

Huawei's boss has claimed allaying customers' fears in light of the NSA revelations has been "tiresome" for the Chinese giant.

Speaking at an analyst summit in Shenzhen, widespread press reports quote Eric Xu – one of the company's four rotating CEOs – as claiming that the effect on its business of the Edward Snowden affair has been "both good and bad". The vendor chief also stressed that the situation has not had "a big impact on business growth".

But Xu admitted that the fallout from the NSA saga has "definitely increased our workload". He seemed to suggest that it has made talking to customers and partners, and assuaging their concerns, "more tiresome" for all parties.

Huawei is not the only tech giant to allude to the issue of having to combat customers' unease following the spying revelations, nor is it the first to reference the potential impact on its business.

A wide array of manufacturers – including Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM – have all spoken out to distance themselves from suggestions they either knowingly handed over client data and/or were complicit in building so-called back doors into their products allowing certain external parties to access information.

In its Q1 FY14 results Cisco revealed its business in China had suffered as a result of the impact on customer sentiment resulting from the saga. However, CEO John Chambers recently played down the potential long-term impact and predicted his firm could successfully straddle the concerns of both governments and customers in the coming years.

Huawei is surely somewhat more used to batting off security concerns than its US rivals. Last year the Chinese titan admitted that it is "not interested in the US market anymore", having faced months of allegations that it posed a threat to US national security. The vendor instead reiterated its desire to "focus on the rest of the world", including the UK, where it has already committed an investment of more than £1bn.

Xu also revealed today that Huawei's future leadership strategy will continue to feature more than one person at the top. For the past two years the CEO role has been rotated between Xu, Ken Hu, Guo Ping and Ren Zhengfei – the company founder who previously occupied the top job on his own.

"The future successor to Mr Ren will not just be one person," Xu explained.