Reports

11.17.20

Meeting the China Challenge: A New American Strategy for Technology Competition

Asia Society
Is China or the U.S. ahead in artificial intelligence? What is the best way to counter security threats in 5G technology? How do we best maintain American leadership positions in fundamental research and biotechnology?

Conversation

01.08.20

China: The Year Ahead

David Schlesinger, Scott Kennedy & more
As 2019 drew to a close, ChinaFile asked contributors to write about their expectations for China in 2020.

Conversation

10.18.19

The Future of Huawei in Europe

Samm Sacks, Yixiang Xu & more
On October 9, the European Commission and the European Agency for Cybersecurity released their long-awaited risk assessment of the region’s 5G network. Written with input from all 28 European Union members, the report warned about a 5G supplier from...

Conversation

05.30.19

What Are We Getting Wrong about the Trade War?

Victor Shih, Yu Zhou & more from ChinaFile
Since the collapse of trade talks in mid-May, voices from both sides have warned of the economic havoc their side can unleash while boasting of their economy’s resilience. Academics in China speak about weaponizing the country’s foreign exchange...

Viewpoint

04.23.19

Who Owns Huawei?

Christopher Balding & Donald Clarke
Who owns Huawei? American officials have long claimed the controversial telecommunications giant belongs to the Chinese state, while Huawei has long called itself a “private company wholly owned by its employees.” Huawei states that its founder, Ren...

In Reassessing China, Europe Sharpens Its Approach

Paul Haenle, Tomáš Valášek & more from Carnegie China
In recent weeks, Beijing has both won victories and suffered defeats during important summits and dialogues with France and Italy, as well as the European Union. French President Emmanuel Macron invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European...

Xi’s Visit to ‘Rival’ Europe

Paul Haenle & Philippe Le Corre from Carnegie China
President Xi Jinping travels to Italy and France this month for his first overseas trip of 2019. His visit comes soon after the European Commission labeled China a “systemic rival” and “economic competitor.” Xi’s objective for both trips is to shore...

Conversation

02.02.19

What Do the Huawei Indictments Mean for the Future of Global Tech?

Adam Segal, Samm Sacks & more
The United States indictments against Huawei look set to significantly worsen already tense relations between China and the U.S. As America pressures allies to drop Huawei and other Chinese firms, U.S. and European officials point to China’s own...

Viewpoint

12.21.18

A Look Back at China in 2018

Kyle Hutzler
In 2018, the outlook for China regarding its politics, economy, and relationship with the United States darkened considerably. The removal of presidential term limits and Xi Jinping’s interactions with the Trump administration prompted rare...
12.12.18

Foreign NGO Employee Detained in Beijing

Jessica Batke
On Monday night, Chinese authorities detained Michael Kovrig of the Brussels-based non-profit International Crisis Group (ICG) in Beijing. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested—though did not definitively state—that Kovrig may have...

Conversation

12.11.18

Is this the Beginning of a New Cold War?

Ali Wyne, Yuen Yuen Ang & more
Beyond complicating trade negotiations between the United States and China, the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has renewed concerns that the two countries are embarking on a new Cold War, based on economic preeminence and technological innovation...

Take a Look around Huawei’s Headquarters in China

Uptin Saiidi
CNBC
It’s several minutes before noon on a Thursday afternoon at Huawei’s headquarters.

Analyst: China’s Huawei To Exit U.S. Market

Jean Baptiste Su
Forbes
By the end of Huawei's annual analyst summit held this week in its hometown of Shenzhen, China, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker left no doubt that the U.S. market is no longer part...

China Smartphone Sales down for First Time since 2009

Louise Lucas and Edward White
Financial Times
Sales of smartphones in China — the world’s biggest market, responsible for roughly one in every three shipments — declined last year for the first time since 2009, slumping 4.9 per cent year on year according to preliminary data from research group...

Conversation

02.01.18

Should Pacific Island Nations Be Wary of Chinese Influence?

Jenny Hayward-Jones, Graeme Smith & more
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s three-day visit to China, from January 31 to February 2, has amplified ongoing debates in Europe about the costs and benefits of engagement with China and of Chinese investment. Attention to China’s role in...

China's Eight-Year-Long Smartphone Growth Comes to an End

BBC
The decline ends eight years' growth in the world's largest mobile phone market.

Huawei's China Smartphone Sales Chief Detained on Corruption Charges

Li Tao
South China Morning Post
A senior Huawei Technologies sales executive has been arrested over suspected “non-state staff bribery”, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.

China’s Huawei Could Overtake Apple This Year in Smartphones, Top Analyst Says

Arjun Kharpal
CNBC
In the second quarter of this year, Huawei held a 11.3 percent market share, shipping 38.5 million units, IDC data show. Apple meanwhile shipped 41 million iPhones and had a 12 percent market share in the same period.

Books

06.13.17

Fortune Makers

Michael Useem, Harbir Singh, Liang Neng, Peter Cappelli
Fortune Makers analyzes and brings to light the distinctive practices of business leaders who are the future of the Chinese economy. These leaders oversee not the old state-owned enterprises, but private companies that have had to invent their way forward out of the wreckage of an economy in tatters following the Cultural Revolution.Outside of brand names such as Alibaba and Lenovo, little is known, even by the Chinese themselves, about the people present at the creation of these innovative businesses. Fortune Makers provides sharp insights into their unique styles—a distinctive blend of the entrepreneur, the street fighter, and practices developed by the Communist Party—and their distinctive ways of leading and managing their organizations that are unlike anything the West is familiar with.When Peter Drucker published Concept of the Corporation in 1946, he revealed what made large American corporations tick. Similarly, when Japanese companies emerged as a global force in the 1980s, insightful analysts explained the practices that brought Japan’s economy out of the ashes—and what managers elsewhere could learn to compete with them. Now, based on unprecedented access, Fortune Makers allows business leaders in the United States and the rest of the West to understand the essential character and style of Chinese corporate life and its dominant players, whose businesses are the foundation of the domestic Chinese market and are now making their mark globally. —PublicAffairs{chop}

Sinica Podcast

05.16.17

America’s Top Trade Negotiator in 2001 Looks at China Today

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Charlene Barshefsky was a name you couldn’t avoid if you were in Beijing in the late 1990s. As the United States Trade Representative from 1997 to 2001, she led the American team that negotiated China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO...

Apple iPhone Toppled from No. 1 Spot in China for the First Time in 5 Years Making Firm ‘Vulnerable’: Research

Arjun Kharpal
CNBC
Apple’s iPhone has failed to clinch the title for the top selling smartphone in China for the first time since 2012, making the U.S. technology giant “vulnerable” in the world‘s second-largest economy

Apple Holds Firm On China iPhone Premium

Doug Young
Forbes
China has become a particularly worrisome market for Apple in the last year.

Is Huawei Doing Enough to Train Local Staff in Africa?

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
The Chinese telecom giant Huawei recently launched a massive publicity campaign to raise awareness in Africa about what it is doing to train local employees. The company has opened at least five training centers in different countries across the...

Apple’s China Problem Is That Local Phones are Good — and Cheap

Alex Webb
Bloomberg
Apple has lost market share to Huawei and Oppo.

China’s Controversial Technology Partnership with South Africa

Eric Olander & Cobus van Staden
The Chinese and South Africa governments have signed a pact, or a “plan of action,” where Beijing will provide a broad array of technology training, skills transfer, and ICT (information and communications technology) development for South Africa’s...

Chinese Corporations in Africa: Saints or Sinners?

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
“The African way of life is under attack by Chinese corporations,” argues University of Technology, Sydney doctoral candidate Onjumi Okumu. The Kenya native contends that a combination of weak governance in African mixed with no legal restraints on...

Caixin Media

07.01.14

China Pulling the Plug on Foreign Mainframes

E-commerce companies and banks in China are scrapping hardware and uninstalling software for mainframe servers made by American suppliers in favor of homegrown brands said to be safe, advanced, and a lot less expensive.The movement has taken special...

China Accuses U.S. of Hypocrisy Amid Charges of Economic Espionage

Massoud Hayoun
Al Jazeera
Unresolved allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on a Chinese telecoms giant Huawei have resurfaced amid growing anger from Chinese officials over accusations that the PLA hacked American databases.

Conversation

04.06.14

Spy Vs. Spy: When is Cyberhacking Crossing the Line?

Vincent Ni, Chen Weihua & more
Vincent Ni: For a long time, Huawei has been accused by some American politicians of “spying on Americans for the Chinese government,” but their evidence has always been sketchy. They played on fear and possibility. I don’t agree or disagree with...

While Warning Of Chinese Cyberthreat, U.S. Launches Its Own Attack

David Davies
NPR
New documents show that the U.S. National Security Agency penetrated the large Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, gathering information about its operations.

China’s Huawei ‘Maintained Calm’ During NSA Hacking Reports

Yimou Lee and Paul Carsten
Reuters
CEO Eric Xu said the telecom giant's Shenzhen headquarters conducted "business as usual" after media reports that the U.S. National Security Agency had hacked company executives' communications.

Cheap iPhone Not Cheap Enough in China

Paul Mozur
Wall Street Journal
Apple stands to gain sales in China more than any other market from the cheaper offering thanks to the country’s huge number of low- and middle-income smartphone users. But in China the new iPhone quite frankly won’t be all that cheap. 

Sinica Podcast

02.21.13

Death, Fraud, and Corporate Skullduggery

Kaiser Kuo & Bill Bishop from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, we talk shop about Caterpillar’s discovery of massive accounting fraud and subsequent $580 million write-down from a Chinese company the American equipment manufacturer acquired. We also look at the mysterious death of an...

Five Points on the Deeply Flawed U.S. Congress Huawei Report

Graham Webster
Transpacifica
Chinese telecomms firms painted as shady, but evidence to back up allegations is hidden in report's classified sections.

Huawei Fires Back at the U.S.

SIOBHAN GORMAN And JURO OSAWA
Wall Street Journal
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Inc. lashed out Monday at a scathing congressional report, calling allegations that it may be spying on Americans and violating U.S. laws "little more than an exercise in China-bashing."

Sinica Podcast

08.31.12

The Huawei Enigma

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
Is there any other company that better captures the dual way China is perceived internationally than Huawei? As one of China’s few market-based telecommunications equipment providers, the company is in many ways a symbol of China’s high-tech, global...

Inside Huawei, Chinese Tech Giant Rattling Nerves in D.C.

Jay Greene and Roger Cheng
CNET
Huawei might make better, cheaper telecom gear than rivals. And it's come up with a new sleek handset to compete against the iPhone. But years of pressure from the federal government have largely kept Huawei on the fringes in the United States.

Huawei: The Company That Spooked the World

Unattributed
Economist
BANBURY, a little English town best known for a walk-on part in a nursery rhyme and as the eponymous origin of a fruitcake, is an unlikely fulcrum for the balance of power in the world of telecoms. But the “Cyber Security Evaluation Centre” set up...

Sinica Podcast

07.20.12

Attack of the Piranhas

Jeremy Goldkorn, William Moss & more from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, Chinese economic growth is on the rocks, ASEAN tensions are breaking through the facade of East-Asian political unity, a major Chinese telecom company is implicated in an international trade scandal, and man-eating fish have...

The Unwritten Rules in Chinese Technology

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
What do we mean when we say a Chinese company has “close ties to the government”? Or is “connected to the military”? And does this matter? It is a problem that writers on China have encountered for years, and it can be difficult get firm evidence...

Reports

11.16.11

Telecoms and the Huawei Conundrum

Claude Barfield
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
The Chinese company Huawei has emerged as the second-largest telecommunications equipment company in the world. It operates in 140 countries around the globe, providing equipment, software, and services to forty-five of the world’s fifty largest...