"The EU states have been talking about digital sovereignty for years. Then why not build your own ecosystem for smart devices?" said Mr. Xu during a recent interview with Germany's business newspaper Handelsblatt. "That would solve the problem of European digital sovereignty."
"If Europe had its own ecosystem for smart devices, Huawei would use it," the Rotating Chairman suggested that Huawei is ready to invest in the long term, but the European ecosystem does not have to come from Huawei.
"The ecosystem built by Europe could also involve US applications and play a role worldwide. It could use Android OS and Harmony OS, which are both open source," he said.
Xu admitted that Huawei had already discussed the plan with some companies in Europe, but could not reveal their names at this stage.
"I assume that we will have clarified the details by the end of this or early next year," he said.
Asked about the recent restrictions from the US, the Rotating Chairman told the German press that the company was prepared and able to develop well under the pressure.
"The US has blacklisted us and want to forbid our US partners from working with us. That's not fair, but we can stand it," he said.
Microsoft President Brad Smith, during a BBC News interview, called on the US government to end the ban on supplying Huawei with Windows software, and said that he did not believe the US's security would be "undermined" be letting Huawei's customers use its operating system.
According to reports by the media, the US Commerce Department has received more than 100 requests from US companies to sell technology to Huawei, but still haven't issued any such licenses.
Knowing the conflict will not be resolved soon, Huawei has been quick to adapt its operations. "We can get along in production completely without components from US companies. Instead, we use components from companies in other parts of the world," Eric Xu said. "Not only will we survive under this pressure for a long time, but we will also be able to develop well."