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AllAfrica
21-07-2025
- Business
- AllAfrica
US reporter goes inside the House of Huawei
'As a military man I have known many clever and truly outstanding strategists. I have rarely come across an individual more strategically oriented than Ren.' With this quote from Admiral William A. Owens, former vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and former CEO of Nortel, Eva Dou introduces her detailed account of Chinese entrepreneur Ren Zhengfei and Huawei, the company that he founded and has led to global prominence. A technology reporter for the Washington Post, Dou provides the background to questions such as: How did Huawei get so big so quickly? What relationship does Ren have with the Chinese military? Is Huawei spying for the Chinese Communist Party? House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company (Portfolio / Penguin, 2025, 406 pages) takes the reader through Ren's early life, his years in the military, Huawei's origins in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone established under the rule of Deng Xiaoping, Ren's political education and how he has used it to advance the company's interests, Huawei's rise to the top of the global telecommunications equipment market, the US government's attempt to shut it down and the start of its recovery. The story begins with the arrest of Ren's daughter and Huawei CFO Meng Wangzhou (Sabrina Meng) by Canadian authorities at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 and concludes with her release in September 2021 and the company's subsequent development under sanctions. The timeline of events at the end of the book stops with the launch of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro 5G smartphone in September 2023. Focused on corporate structure, management and the question of just what sort of company Huawei is (and needing to stop somewhere), Dou does not address the evolution of Huawei into a diversified technology company that is far more sophisticated and influential than it was when the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce put sanctions on it in May 2019. Born in 1944, Ren grew up in poverty in the early years of the People's Republic of China, during the struggle to establish a communist society, on the edge of starvation during the Great Leap Forward, in the dangerous political chaos of the Cultural Revolution. The son of an educator who was attacked and humiliated by students during the rampage of the Red Guards, and of a mother who supported his love of learning, he was the only one of seven children to attend university. In 1968, after graduating from the Chongqing Institute of Architecture and Engineering with a degree in heating, gas supply and ventilation engineering, Ren went to work at Base 011, a military factory hidden in the caves of Guizhou Province, not far from Vietnam. He worked as a cook, a plumber and a technician, studying electronics in his spare time. After that, he was dispatched to train at the Xi'an Instruments Factory, which made pressure gauges, thermometers and other devices, and then to Liaoyang in the far northeast with the PLA Engineering Corps to build a nylon and polyester factory. Ren was not a soldier, but he adopted military attitudes and a strong sense of patriotism. 'He would inculcate Huawei with a military-esque culture,' writes Dou, 'running new hires through army-inspired boot camps and emphasizing discipline and personal sacrifice. He peppered his speeches with military analogies and references to famous battles. Years later, he still carried himself with a soldier's bearing.' In Liaoyang, Ren's unit was assigned to test and calibrate instruments brought by French technical advisors. These included differential pressure transmitters, which measure the rate of flow through a pipe. Frustrated by the old and inaccurate Soviet gauges on hand and inspired after learning about a new type of precision gauge made in the US, he decided to build his own. In 1979, after a great deal of work, he published a small book about his invention entitled A Floating Ball-Precision Pressure Generator – Air Pressure Balance. By then, Ren had been sent to Jinan, where he was made deputy director of a research institute. And he had attended China's first National Science Conference, where Deng Xiaoping declared that scientists were part of the working class. This made it possible for him to join the Communist Party, which would greatly facilitate his career in China but raise the incurable suspicion of the Americans. And so it was that after the PLA Engineering Corps was disbanded in 1982, Ren was able to move to Shenzhen with the experience, drive and connections that would first land him a job at a subsidiary of the South Sea Oil Corporation and then, when Shenzhen legalized privately owned technology companies, strike out on his own. In September 1987, at the age of 42, Ren founded Huawei Technologies Co. Huawei started off as a contract assembler and distributor of telephone switches, but Ren wanted to build his own. To do this, he recruited engineering talent and began to copy a Chinese-made switch, a simple PBX (Private Branch Exchange), that was already on the market. The engineers he hired included Guo Ping, who is now chairman of Huawei's supervisory board, who joined Huawei in 1988; and Hu Houkun (Ken Hu), who is now one of the four rotating chairs of the company's board of directors, who joined in 1990. Two other current rotating chairs, Xu Zhijun (Eric Xu) and Liang Hua (Howard Liang), joined in 1993 and 1995. The fourth is Ren's daughter, Meng Wanzhou. In 1993, Ren bet the company on the development of an advanced digital PBX that could handle 10,000 telephone calls at once. The following year, having obtained the support of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and formed a joint venture with provincial telecommunications bureaus, Huawei had both a functioning prototype and recognition as a company that could help China eliminate its dependence on foreign suppliers of telecom equipment. When national leader Jiang Zemin, himself an engineer, visited Shenzhen, Ren told him:'A country without its own program-controlled switches is like one without an army.' Ren added that such switches are 'related to national security' and that their 'software must be held in the hands of the Chinese government.' After that, Huawei's domestic business took off as it and Chinese rivals, led by ZTE, displaced foreign suppliers such as Northern Telecom (Nortel), Ericsson and Fujitsu with a combination of low prices, aggressive marketing, government favoritism and steady technological advance. Foreign equipment was ripped out and replaced, something that Huawei itself would experience in the US and other countries many years later. Huawei also began to expand outside China, starting in California in 1993 and moving on to Hong Kong, Russia, Europe, Latin America and the rest of the world. Faced with entrenched competition in advanced countries, it sought an advantage in less attractive markets including Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. That earned it the attention of the US military (which bombed an optical fiber network Huawei was building in Iraq in 2001) and the National Security Agency (NSA). In February 2003, Cisco sued Huawei for patent infringement, dropping its suit in July 2004. Neither side revealed the details of the settlement, merely indicating that they were satisfied, but suspicion of Huawei only increased. The FBI interviewed Ren during his visit to New York in 2007, Motorola sued Huawei in 2010 and the House Select Committee on Intelligence looked into the activities of both Huawei and ZTE in 2012. In 2014, the New York Times and Der Spiegel, citing documents made public by Edward Snowden, reported that the NSA had hacked Huawei's email system in 2009, had also gained access to its source code and was even using Huawei telecom infrastructure to conduct its own spying operations. Also in 2014, Meng Wanzhou was detained for questioning at JFK Airport in New York. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Commerce put sanctions on ZTE, and in August 2018, President Trump prohibited US government agencies from using ZTE and Huawei equipment. When Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in December of that year, the immediate pretext was Huawei's business in Iran, which contravened US sanctions. But there was a lot more to it than that. Huawei had become the world's top supplier of leading edge 5G mobile telecom equipment, with the highest market share, the most advanced technology and by far the lowest prices. Western vendors, who had invented and until recently dominated the telecom equipment market, were going the way of the Dodo bird. On top of that, the US, Australia and others were worried that China would do to them what the US had been doing to China, with serious consequences for national security. As former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote about banning Huawei's 5G equipment, 'That didn't mean we thought Huawei was currently being used to interfere with our telecommunication networks. Our approach was a hedge against a future threat, not the identification of a smoking gun but a loaded one.' As things stand now, the use of Huawei and ZTE 5G equipment has been banned or greatly restricted in the US and Canada, western Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. But because countries not allied with the US have not cooperated, and because the Chinese market is so big, Huawei remains the world's top supplier. Near the end of her narrative, Dou writes: But make no mistake: The US government has succeeded in halting Huawei's rise. Huawei is no longer setting new sales records each year but is instead working to regain its 2020 levels…[and] it remains to be seen if Huawei can maintain its place as an R&D leader in the next generation, and the one after that. However, Huawei's financial results for 2024 show sales up 35% since 2021, when sanctions hit hardest, reaching 96% of their 2020 peak with a higher operating margin. And, in addition to returning to the 5G cell phone market in defiance of US sanctions on the Chinese semiconductor industry, Huawei has taken the lead in 5G-Advanced (5.5G) mobile telecom technology, replaced Oracle's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software with its own, become a significant supplier of autonomous driving solutions, and impressed both Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and industry analysts with its AI processing technology. Speaking in Beijing last Wednesday, Huang said, 'Anyone who discounts Huawei and anyone who discounts China's manufacturing capability is deeply naïve.' But that doesn't mean that Dou's conclusion is necessarily wrong, only that a book cannot keep up with the news, particularly in the case of fast-moving technologies. What the news can't match is Dou's thorough exploration of the evolution of Huawei's management, its legal and political battles in China and the US, and the character of Ren Zhengfei and its other key personnel. House of Huawei is an excellent source for scholars, journalists and anyone else interested in the rise of China. Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Huawei's 7nm Chip Stalls Expose China's AI Weakness--While Rivals Race Ahead
Huawei's latest foldable MateBook looks sleekbut under the hood, it's running on old tech. The chip inside? A 7nm processor made by SMIC, China's top foundry. Same tech Huawei used back in 2023 for its Mate 60 Pro. According to TechInsights, there's been no real breakthrough since. That puts Huawei three generations behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which is gearing up to mass-produce 2nm chips later this year. The message: despite China's push for self-reliance, catching up in semiconductors is proving harder than expected. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. Export controls appear to be doing exactly what they were designed to doslow China down. With ASML still blocked from selling EUV lithography machines to Chinese firms, SMIC hasn't yet cracked scalable 5nm production, which is the entry ticket to high-end AI, cloud, and mobile chips. Washington's restrictions on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips have also kept Huawei boxed out of the training game for top-tier AI models. Even so, Huawei has leaned into homegrown solutions, running its new devices on HarmonyOS and stacking chips to try and bridge the performance gap. But scale is the real testand here's where the ceiling hits. U.S. officials said Huawei could be capped at just 200,000 units of its Ascend AI chip in 2025, a far cry from global AI leaders. Still, founder Ren Zhengfei isn't backing down. In a recent interview, he brushed off the impact of sanctions and pointed to workarounds like chip stacking. Investors watching China's tech race will be asking the obvious question: is that enough to stay in the gameor just enough to survive? This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Huawei's 7nm Chip Stalls Expose China's AI Weakness--While Rivals Race Ahead
Huawei's latest foldable MateBook looks sleekbut under the hood, it's running on old tech. The chip inside? A 7nm processor made by SMIC, China's top foundry. Same tech Huawei used back in 2023 for its Mate 60 Pro. According to TechInsights, there's been no real breakthrough since. That puts Huawei three generations behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which is gearing up to mass-produce 2nm chips later this year. The message: despite China's push for self-reliance, catching up in semiconductors is proving harder than expected. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. Export controls appear to be doing exactly what they were designed to doslow China down. With ASML still blocked from selling EUV lithography machines to Chinese firms, SMIC hasn't yet cracked scalable 5nm production, which is the entry ticket to high-end AI, cloud, and mobile chips. Washington's restrictions on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips have also kept Huawei boxed out of the training game for top-tier AI models. Even so, Huawei has leaned into homegrown solutions, running its new devices on HarmonyOS and stacking chips to try and bridge the performance gap. But scale is the real testand here's where the ceiling hits. U.S. officials said Huawei could be capped at just 200,000 units of its Ascend AI chip in 2025, a far cry from global AI leaders. Still, founder Ren Zhengfei isn't backing down. In a recent interview, he brushed off the impact of sanctions and pointed to workarounds like chip stacking. Investors watching China's tech race will be asking the obvious question: is that enough to stay in the gameor just enough to survive? This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Time of India
24-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Why Huawei's new laptop is being regarded as evidence of how America's 'China ban' is hurting one of the biggest Chinese company
FILE (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) Huawei Technologies new MateBook Fold relies on a 7-nanometer chip made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), using technology from years ago, indicating that U.S. sanctions continue to hinder China's progress in advanced semiconductor development, Bloomberg reported, citing Canada-based consultancy TechInsights. This chip uses the same 7nm process as Huawei's Mate 60 Pro, which surprised U.S. officials in 2023. In contrast, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to mass-produce 2nm chips, three generations ahead, later this year. The foldable notebook-tablet hybrid, launched in May, runs on Huawei's HarmonyOS and reflects Beijing's push for tech self-reliance amid U.S.-led restrictions, Bloomberg noted. However, China struggles to access cutting-edge chipmaking tools, as ASML Holding NV is barred from selling advanced lithography machines to Chinese firms. TechInsights stated, 'This likely means that SMIC has not yet achieved a 5nm-equivalent node that can be produced at scale,' highlighting the impact of U.S. technology controls on SMIC's ability to compete with leading foundries. America's China threat and fear The US sees China as a key rival in the field of artificial intelligence. The rise of DeepSeek earlier this year sending shock waves across US technology companies and wiping billions from their valuation. In addition to efforts to prevent China from securing advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, Washington is blocking Chinese companies from acquiring Nvidia's high-end AI chips for training, citing national security concerns. Beijing, on its part, is now pinning its hopes on Huawei and SMIC when it comes to advanced chipmaking. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play Chess on Your PC, Free Play Classic Chess Install Now Undo Despite Huawei's 2023 debut of a China-made 7nm chip, progress has stalled, with U.S. export controls limiting Huawei to producing only 200,000 Ascend AI chips in 2025, according to U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler, Bloomberg reported. Washington views China as a rival in AI, especially after DeepSeek's global emergence in 2025, and continues to block access to Nvidia's high-end AI chips. Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei, in an interview with People's Daily, downplayed U.S. curbs, suggesting techniques like chip stacking could mimic advanced semiconductor results. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
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First Post
28-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Did Pahalgam terrorists use Chinese satphone and apps to navigate?
Operatives from The Resistance Force (TRF) – an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group based in Pakistan – are thought to have relied on Chinese equipment and apps to keep in touch with their handlers across the border and avoid Indian authorities. But what do we know? read more Security personnel inspecting the site in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack. AFP Did Pahalgam terrorists use Chinese satphones and apps? That's what new reports are saying. Operatives from The Resistance Force (TRF) – an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group based in Pakistan – are thought to have relied on Chinese equipment to keep in touch with their handlers across the border and avoid Indian authorities. The TRF has claimed responsibility for the attack in which 26 people were killed in south Kashmir. The National Investigation Agency is currently probing the attack on Pahalgam's Baisaram – an area known as 'mini-Switzerland.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Following orders from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, NIA has begun the process of formally taking over the Pahalgam terror attack case, in which 26 innocent tourists were mercilessly shot dead on Tuesday. NIA teams…have intensified the search for evidence,' the agency has said. But what happened? What do we know? Let's take a closer look: What happened? News18 quoted intelligence sources as saying that the terrorists used messaging apps from China to remain in touch with their handlers in Pakistan. India had banned these apps, which are encrypted, in the aftermath of the Galwan Valley clash in 2020. Intelligence sources also said there was at least one Chinese satphone in Pahalgam on the day of the attack in Kashmir. Economic Times reported that the satphone in question is a Huawei model. The company's phones are banned in India. Officials told the newspaper that Huawei satellite phones were smuggled into India from either Pakistan or another foreign country. Officials told Economic Times they said they are getting technical intelligence and assistance from Western agencies to track the satphone. Overground workers in Jammu and Kashmir and eyewitnesses are also being interviewed. How do they work? As per Business Today, Huawei makes several smartphones with built-in satellite communication features. This includes the Mate 60 Pro, P60 series, and nova 11 Ultra – all of which are made to connect to China's Tiantong-1 satellite network. These phones have internal satellite antennas and specialised chip which allow them to link up to the satellite network without using external equipment. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD They need China Telecom SIM cards and subscription plans. The phones have low-bandwidth voice and text services and even work in areas with no cell coverage. The satellite phones use non-terrestrial networks like Iridium to bypass local infrastructure. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a conversation with Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern over the rising tensions between the two countries and urged an impartial investigation. Reuters Huawei's satellite-enabled smartphones such as the Mate 60 Pro look exactly like its ordinary smartphones. The outlet said experts think that Huawei's satellite-enabled phones could potentially bypass Indian cellular and satellite surveillance systems. As per CNBC, some of these Chinese apps and phones come with end-to-end encryption, advanced encryption that even quantum computers cannot break and steganography – hiding messages within files such as images and videos. They use burst transmitters which send data in milliseconds. They also use frequency hopping –rapidly switching radio frequencies to avoid detection or jamming. China backs Pakistan Meanwhile, China has come out in support of Pakistan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a conversation with Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern over the rising tensions between the two countries and urged an impartial investigation. Dar was quoted as saying that said China 'rejected India's unilateral and illegal actions, as well as its baseless propaganda against Pakistan." STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Beijing has also expressed support for its all-weather ally Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and security interests. Wang said China was closely following the developments, stressing that combating terrorism was a shared responsibility of the entire world while reaffirming Beijing's consistent support for Pakistan's firm counterterrorism efforts, it added. 'As an ironclad friend and an all-weather strategic cooperative partner, China fully understands Pakistan's legitimate security concerns and supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and security interests,' Wang said. 'China advocates for a swift and fair investigation and believes that conflict does not serve the fundamental interests of either India or Pakistan, nor does it benefit regional peace and stability,' Wang noted. China hopes both sides will remain restrained, move toward each other, and work together to de-escalate the situation, he added. Dar emphasised that Pakistan had consistently and firmly fought terrorism and was against any actions that could lead to an escalation of the situation, according to the report. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan is committed to managing the situation in a mature manner and will maintain communication with China and the international community, Dar said. On April 23, China 'strongly condemned' the brutal terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed. 'We strongly condemn the attack. China firmly opposes all forms of terrorism,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun had told a media briefing. 'We mourn for the lives lost and express sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured,' he had said. Separately, China's Ambassador to India Xu Feihong had also condemned the attack. 'Shocked by the attack in Pahalgam and condemn (it),' he had said in a post on X. 'Deep condolences for the victims and sincere sympathies to the injured and the bereaved families. Oppose terrorism of all forms,' he had said.
