[4] His grandfather, Ren Sanhe (任三和), was a master chef from Rendian Village (任店村), Pujiang County, Zhejiang, and who specialized in curing ham.

[6] During the Japanese occupation, his father migrated south to Guangzhou to work in a military factory of the Nationalist government as an accounts clerk.

In elementary and middle school, Ren was known for being withdrawn and unsociable, and he was denied admission to the Communist Youth League due to his insufficiently developed spirit of collectivism.

[9][12] With the Chinese college examinations approaching, Cheng Yuanzhao (程远昭), even though poor, gave him a scallion pancake every morning.

[12] In 1966, when Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, Ren, who was studying in college, received a letter mentioning that his father had been dismissed and criticized for his experience working in the Kuomintang's 412 military factory.

[16][12] After returning to college, Ren taught himself computers, digital technology, automatic control, logic, philosophy, and three foreign languages.

[citation needed] In 1968, Ren Zhengfei graduated from university and was assigned to the 304th Battalion of the 31st Detachment of the Infrastructure Engineering Corps in Anshun, which was founded in 1966, to participate in the construction of the aircraft factory of the 011 base.

[20] Throughout most of his military career, Ren was denied entry to the Communist Party due to his parents' social background and his father's work for the Nationalist government.

[19][18] After joining the Southern Oil Group, Ren could not stand the bureaucracy of some department leaders who were content with the status quo and did not want to make progress.

[21][22] In 1987, Ren Zhengfei, 43, and his partners founded Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co., Ltd., which means "Having a Heart connected to Chunghua, and making a difference" (心系中华，有所作为).

[22] At the beginning of establishing the company, friends recommended him to make money with high profits, but Ren thought that was not a long-term solution.

[29] Due to the long lead time of research and development and the shortage of capital, Ren had to borrow usury to maintain the normal operation of the company.

[34] At the meeting, he presented 100 gold medals to outstanding employees and the boss of Hongnian Company (鸿年公司) in Hong Kong, which supported the start of the Huawei.

[34] Ren hired Xu Wenwei (徐文伟) from the nearby Yilida Group (亿利达集团) and put him in charge of the hardware.

At that time, I did not understand the option system, still less did I know that the West was very developed in this area...Only based on my past life setbacks, I realized that I should share the responsibilities and benefits with the employees.

Ren set up a "everyone shareholding system": converting half of his recorded wages into shares in Huawei, which can be exchanged for cash when he resigns.

[43] In 2005, Ren Zhengfei brought[clarification needed] all the voice teams of the Harbor Shenzhen Research Institute to Huawei for 1 million.

[45] In January 2003, Cisco Systems hired an American lawyer to file a more than 70-page complaint against Huawei in United States federal court in Marshall, Texas.

[50] Since 1996, Ren has successively hired IBM and other American and British companies to reform Huawei's R and D, supply chain, financial and market systems, integrate its product development system, integrate its supply chain, human resource management, financial management, and quality control.

[56] Ren's possible ties with the PLA have been cited by the Indian government as a security concern in not allowing Huawei to win certain contracts in India.

In the United Kingdom the Intelligence and Security Committee has recommended the removal of Huawei's equipment due to fears of its being used to facilitate spying by the Chinese.

As of December 2018, Annabel is a ballet dancer and a computer science student at Harvard University and made a high-profile debut at Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris in 2018.

It is impossible to reduce dynamic corporate management to a fixed set of dogmas.Ren is a fan of the TV series The Qin Empire, which tells the story of the reforms of Chinese statesman Shang Yang.

[8] Of all Chinese political leaders, Ren Zhengfei holds Deng Xiaoping in the highest regard, repeatedly calling him the greatest reformer in China's history.

Among foreign politicians, Ren has the greatest respect for Yitzhak Rabin, and he even refers to himself as a student of the former Israeli prime minister.