On the eve of high-level trade talks between the United States and China in London, an unusually candid interview with Zhengfei Ren, founder of Huawei, appeared in the Chinese state-run People’s Daily—drawing significant attention at home and abroad. The interview, headlined “The more open a country is, the more it progresses was widely interpreted as both a diplomatic signal and a strategic statement on China’s ambitions in semiconductors and technology.