Huawei Goes on Offense in the Battle for Hearts and Minds

Huawei Technologies Co. has turned to a blend of wit, sarcasm and defiance to publicly fight allegations that the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment is spying for China. It’s a remarkable shift for a giant whose founder Ren Zhengfei spurned the media and avoided overt displays of power.

Rotating Chairman Guo Ping encapsulates its new credo. Striding onstage before hundreds of people at the phone industry’s flagship conference this week, he opened with a joke directly addressing the company’s demons: “There has never been more interest in Huawei. We must be doing something right.”