Recently there have been widespread rumors about the disappearance and escape of Ren Zhengfei’s family members, at a time when the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, Yao Anna (taking her mother’s surname), appeared publicly in Beijing on the 14th to attend a press conference of an online TV program. Yao Anna later shared photos of her attendance at the event on her personal Weibo account. Her public appearance is seen as a move by the Ren family to dispel rumors.
During the press conference on the 14th, Yao Anna shared her experiences participating in the new program “Guardian Season of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” as reported by mainland Chinese media such as the “Beijing News” and “Beijing Youth Daily.”
“Guardian Season of Intangible Cultural Heritage” is a series of cultural experience reality shows launched by Alibaba Group’s video platform Youku. The first season, “Treasure Season of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” was broadcast on Youku on September 24, 2025, with Yao Anna serving as an “intangible cultural heritage experience officer.”
Multiple official media reports mentioned Yao Anna, and entertainment bloggers on Weibo specifically praised her so-called “presence and demeanor.”
Yao Anna, 28 years old, whose real name is Yao Siwei, is the daughter of Ren Zhengfei and his second wife Yao Ling. After graduating from Harvard University in 2020, she entered the Chinese entertainment industry in 2021. She also works as a brand ambassador, promoting Huawei’s latest smartphones.
Yao Anna’s public appearance in Beijing on the 14th is seen as a response to online rumors claiming that over ten members of the Ren family, including Yao Anna, had gone missing and fled.
An account named “Asian Finance” posted: “Has Ren Zhengfei dispelled the rumors?” However, the post also mentioned, “The key now is how Ren Zhengfei and Meng Wanzhou will dispel the rumors. After all, Yao Anna is not involved in Huawei’s business.”
Starting from around September 11th, an internal conversation screenshot related to Huawei suddenly went viral online. The conversation showed that Huawei’s chairman Liang Hua claimed he had been unable to contact Ren Zhengfei for two consecutive days and that all members of Ren Zhengfei’s family were unreachable simultaneously. There were also online rumors of a video claiming that the “Huawei headquarters was surrounded by armed police.”
However, there is no reliable evidence to prove that Ren Zhengfei has fled. Some netizens pointed out that the video of the so-called “armed police entering Huawei” could be footage from previous years. Neither the Ren family, Huawei, nor the Chinese Communist Party officials have responded to these rumors.
Ren Zhengfei’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party is extremely deep and complex. Ren Zhengfei was a former military technician and a member of the Communist Party. Throughout Huawei’s growth into a global technology giant, it has long received robust support from the Chinese government in terms of funding, policies, and market access. Although Ren Zhengfei has repeatedly denied that Huawei is a political or intelligence tool of the Communist Party, the outside world and many governments generally believe that Huawei maintains a high degree of symbiotic and cooperative relationship with the Beijing regime.
While there is no personal or familial relationship between Ren Zhengfei and Xi Jinping, after the outbreak of the US-China tech war, Xi Jinping and the Chinese authorities have provided significant support to Huawei in terms of diplomacy, policies, and other national levels.
Huawei has recently officially launched several heavyweight new models, with its chips selling well. However, there are some skeptics in society who doubt Huawei’s true abilities and are critical of its promotional methods. Controversies mainly revolve around issues like “exaggerated advertising,” “patriotism manipulation,” and “discrepancies between data and actual user experiences.”
China analyst Li Linyi stated that the problem lies in the fact that Huawei is the Communist Party’s biggest puppet. Given the current discontent with the Communist rule in China, many people are hoping for trouble for Huawei, wishing for Xi Jinping to deal with Ren Zhengfei, potentially stirring up internal conflicts within the Communist Party. These rumors may just be one way for public sentiment to express itself.