A Research On Huawei's Public Relations Strategy In Crisis Under The Background Of The China-US Trade War

In the context of China-US trade war,Huawei,a Chinese corporation,has repeatedly been subject to injustice from the United States.Huawei has launched a series of public relations crises in response.As a well-known multinational private enterprise in China,Huawei exemplifies its application of overseas crisis public relation(PR)strategy as an important reference for Chinese enterprises going abroad.In this paper,the crisis PR strategy of Huawei in the context of China-US trade war was explored through data integration and case analysis based on the theory of situational crisis communication.As being stated in this paper,the role of REN Zhengfei as a core figure is highlighted in the crisis PR process of Huawei.In response to the crisis at the fact level,Huawei is adept in denying false accusations and retrieving the discourse power,and at the value level,Huawei is skilled at emotional factors to seek sympathy from internal,overseas and domestic stakeholders.However,Huawei crisis PR is faced with difficulties due to the negative “image”created by major US media in the context of China-US trade war,the authenticity of the crisis PR evidence,and the influence of crisis PR history.In terms of crisis PR towards the “Entity List” event,the resources of Huawei,the government,other companies and other countries are integrated.This crisis PR action of Huawei also weakens public negative sentiment and increases the proportion of neutral emotions.However,Huawei crisis PR embodies two different views as being reported by Chinese and foreign media,i.e.,technology-independence or technology-dependence,which may be immanently caused by inadequate communication of overseas crisis PR,imbalanced core information of transnational crisis PR,existence of stronger western countries and weaker China discourse power,and the further rational recognition and evaluation of the strength of scientific and technological innovation.To sum up,the crisis of Huawei in the context of China-US trade war is both an opportunity and a challenge.Chinese enterprise should learn from the experience and lessons of Huawei in the future.In the early stage of the crisis,enterprises need to consolidate their corporate strengths and take the initiative to construct the PR strategic system.During the crisis,enterprises should strengthen the communication with foreign media and seize the discourse power through media.After the crisis,enterprises should respect regional differences and leverage emotional factors to reconstruct value.