He maintains a residence in the Triangle and spends a great deal of time at the executive headquarters for the world’s No. 1 PC company in Morrisville. But this week, Yang is boasting about his native land.

China.

And his defense of remarks made by China President Xi about how the Internet should be regulated may raise some eyebrows.

First, technology.

The Lenovo Chair and CEO is touting China’s growing power as a technology leader at the World Internet Congress underway this week in that country. And his confidence is not just an idle boast. It’s reflected in a recent report that found China beating the U.S. and Japan combined in patents.

“The World Intellectual Property Organization says China cranked out patent applications at a record pace last year. Its total of just under a million outstripped the U.S. and Japan combined,” WRAL TechWire reported just last week.

So listen to what Yang told China TV:

“The Internet has provided Chinese technology companies with an opportunity to catch up with and surpass global peers. China still lags behind the United State in technological innovation.

“But as China has the world’s largest number of Internet users, it has helped Chinese enterprises to innovate in Internet service, user applications and business models and leapfrogged others. In the future, we’ll also become leading players in Internet equipment and supporting technologies.”

There’s work to be done, though.

“The technology gap between Chinese IT enterprises and their counterparts in the US is obvious and the brand awareness of Chinese products still needs to be improved,” Yang told China Daily in an interview.

“But innovative business models appearing in the country’s market have contributed to the leaping development of the sector and provided potential growth space for new technologies.”

Second, politics.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping called Wednesday for governments to cooperate in regulating Internet use, stepping up efforts to promote controls that activists complain stifle free expression,” The Associated Press reported.

“Xi’s government operates extensive Internet monitoring and censorship and has tightened controls since he came to power in 2013.”

“Speaking at a government-organized conference attended by executives of global and Chinese Internet companies, Xi called for creating a global ‘governance system’ to reflect the “wishes and interests of all countries.” He said that would help fight online crime and terrorism and promote ‘healthy development’ of the Internet.”

Not everyone liked what Xi said.

“On the eve of the conference, the human rights group Amnesty International appealed to technology companies to resist Chinese initiatives that might curb freedom of expression or worsen human rights abuses,” The AP reported.

“Under the guise of sovereignty and security, the Chinese authorities are trying to rewrite the rules of the Internet so censorship and surveillance become the norm everywhere,” said the group’s East Asia research director, Roseann Rife, in a statement reported by the AP. “This is an all-out assault on Internet freedoms.”

Here’s what Yang said about Xi’s comments:

“President Xi’s latest Internet development proposals announced at the 2nd World InternetConference (WIC) will inspire the country’s Internet practitioners and the support coming fromthe government will bring a great opportunity for smart devices makers going global,” he told China Daily in an interview.

What’s next big play for Lenovo? IoT

Under Yang, Lenovo grew quickly to become the world’s largest PC company. And over the last two years it has moved aggressively into servers as well as smartphones with acquisitions from IBM (x86 business) and Google (Motorola Mobility).

Long a believer in Internet-connected devices, Yang now is pushing the Internet of Things with devices that have “brains of the cloud.”

“Lenovo is not only a traditional IT company, but also reserves an innovative spirit as a pioneer in the Mobile Internet era,” Yang told China Daily. 

“We are eager to enable more hardware devices to be activated in our IoT platform and by creating new application settings and environments, such as smart living room management devices, more potential markets will be stimulated in the industry,” said Yang.

Read more at:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/2015-12/17/content_22735575.htm

http://english.cntv.cn/2015/12/17/VIDE1450298762043565.shtml