Telecom & Wireless

Huawei Pitches to Do Business Outside China

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 16, 2018 6:25 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:28 am

Many U.S. lawmakers don’t like Chinese telecom giant Huawei very much. They believe that its products are a way for China’s government to spy on American business interests and smartphone users. Huawei presents itself in a very different light. There is no way to tell for certain which perspective is correct. Huawei’s sales in the United States are at stake.

As part of the Huawei corporate policy, management says:

Huawei believes in the power of dissolving boundaries to work more closely with the world. Together with our partners, we are working hard to build a symbiotic business ecosystem that thrives on shared success.

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Also:

Huawei’s vision of Building a Better Connected World is one that we share with all of humanity. Our world is in the process of evolving from a digital world to an intelligent one. Historically speaking, enterprises in traditional value chains establish core competency by owning and controlling vital resources. As industries converge and consumer demand evolves, however, in-house strengths are no longer enough to maintain a competitive edge. Effective use of external resources will become increasingly important, and in order to succeed, enterprises have to become more open and flexible, future-proofing their business based on strengths derived from the industry ecosystem.

Presumably sharing with humanity is not a form of stealing.

At least some large governments and multinationals disagree with the way that some U.S. lawmakers see Huawei. The Chinese company has set recent deals with Duisburg Germany, Telefónica, Bharti Airtel and France’s Sodexo. Best Buy sells several Huawei smartphones, including the new Mate 10 Pro 4G LTE.

If Huawei is a conduit for China to spy on Western nation interests, it already has large footholds in several countries. In the United States, one worry is that Huawei might help American telecoms build a superfast 5G network. However, Congress may not know whether smartphones or 5G networks are better spy tools. The answer may be that politicians want to throw out any relationship with Huawei. That point of view means that countless consumers around the world and telecoms outside the United States have made terrible decisions and that China has gained eyes and ears around the world. The battle Congress wants to wage may cripple the Chinese company’s American business. And over what? Speculation?