Huawei has been dominating the headlines during the past few weeks, with multiple backs and forths between the US, China, Huawei and Apple, yet another character has shown up to comment. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, has reportedly taken a surprising stance on Apple’s and the US’s side in the case.

Mr Zhengfei has disclosed, in an interview with Bloomberg, that he sees Apple as a “teacher”, and would protest if China set sanctions on the company as revenge for Huawei’s US blacklisting.

“That will not happen, first of all. And second of all, if that happens, I’ll be the first to protest […] Apple is my teacher, it’s in the lead. As a student, why go against my teacher? Never.”

Mr Zhengfei’s stance seems to be based on the principle of respect, something that Asian cultures and especially the Chinese value very highly. In a rough translation, it’s called “face” in English, meaning mostly that you always represent someone, be it your family, yourself or your company and thereby you should do right by others in order to not affect the reputation of yourself or your associates.

Huawei has not commented on a theoretical “Apple Ban”, and Mr Zhangfei’s words shouldn’t be taken as an official statement from the company, however, with the founder clearly being against such a thing, it puts pressure on Huawei to not get involved in Apple – China relations or take Apple’s side, which is not preferable from the company’s business perspective.