The US Cannot Crush Us, Says Huawei Founder
Huawei is a Chinese multinational telecommunication equipment company. Founded by Ren Zhengfei, it is currently the world's third largest phone manufacturer (Behind Apple and Samsung). Despite Huawei's international success, the company's devices are extremely difficult to purchase in some markets, including the US.
Over the past few years, Huawei has been providing Iraq and North Korea telecom equipment possibly capable of intensive spying on populations. These suspicions lead to the arrestment of the company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who also happens to be Ren Zhengfei's daughter. Some government agencies believe that Huawei equipment contains backdoors that allow the Chinese government to snoop on customers. Recently, Huawei announced the new 5G wireless technology and hope to export this advancement globally.
Summary:
Due to the security concerns of Huawei, the United States is currently attempting to ban all 5G services from leaking into the West. In Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei's interview, he emphasizes that "Huawei will never accept anyone's instructions to install a backdoor." He also addresses the current condition of the company and states that "the US cannot crush [Huawei]." Ren believes that the absence of US market can only push Huawei forward. Currently, the U.S. is encouraging other countries to ban Huawei. By the end of 2018, Australia, New Zealand, and America completely restricted the selling of Huawei products. Other countries such as Canada and Germany proposed possible banning in the future. Despite the opposing factors, Ren states that they will continue to work with other countries such as the UK and expand international impact until Huawei becomes the largest telecom company.
Reaction:
On a broader scale, the relationship with Huawei not only represent the willingness to cooperate with the company, but also the trust between two countries. It's shocking to me that America is putting so much effort into stopping Huawei from spreading. This also proves that America and China are competing to become the most powerful country in the world. As a Chinese citizen, I find it interesting how China manufactures a mass amount of products that are "untrustworthy," yet people are still using them. The rapid advancement of technology and new things are irresistible for citizens, and this eventually leads to the toxic market we currently have.
Connection:
The trading of telecom products can be connected to the Belt and Road Initiative. The careful trading of Huawei products reflects the intense relationship and lack of trust between major countries. As products are transported across the globe, potential danger can emerge. As America proposed, China can use trading as an opportunity to spy on other countries. If China is actually able to gain secretive information from foreign countries, it might lead to a totalitarian world. Just like the Belt and Road Initiative, China will be able to control the decisions made by smaller countries.
Questions:
1. Do you think Huawei will be able to become the largest telecom company? Why or why not.
2. If Huawei technology really allows the Chinese government to spy on users, why are countries such as the UK willing to cooperate with the company?
3. Do you think this will impact the relationship between major countries? Why or why not.
Additional Sources:
Aljazeera.com
Businessinsider.com
I think that Huawei will not be able to become the largest telecom company because the market in a lot of European countries is set towards other companies (https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/broadband/best-phone-network-uk-3681692/). We see this largely in products like Apple, where even though companies may offer a product with both better hardware and lower prices, most Apple users choose to stick to Apple so they do not have to get used to a new software. Service from Huawei is going to be exactly the same. A huge part of this may also be that people will not feel secure knowing the accusations on Huawei. I think Huawei does have spying capabilities (i.e. searching history, texts, etc.) because data can be copied once it hits a receiver, similarly to how people can access your data on public wifi. I think that this will set boundaries between China and other countries because countries are banning the product, and I believe it will only be a matter of time (and possibly investigations into Huawaei) for conflict over how to manage the company will commence.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Huawei will be able to become the largest telecom company because they haven’t been able to expand their markets to other countries as significantly as other competing companies. However, their research on the 5G may allow them to rebound back up the leaderboards. According to the Economist (https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/07/why-does-5g-have-everyone-worried-about-huawei), upgrading to 5G will require telecoms firms around the world to spend plenty of money on new kit. Huawei—along with rivals such as Ericsson, a Swedish firm, and Nokia, a Finnish one—aims to be one of the principal suppliers. Throughout Europe, Huawei has tried to push their way through into their market by donating to schools, including Cambridge University; holding parties for political leaders; and sponsoring prominent charities like the Prince’s Trust, founded by Prince Charles. In Germany, Huawei opened facilities to conduct research on new innovations and sponsored events, including the recent convention of Germany’s governing Christian Democratic Union party (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/technology/huawei-europe-china.html). However, recently, the United States has moved to restrict the use of Chinese technology because of concerns that it is being used for espionage. The fallout is growing across Europe, which has become Huawei’s biggest market outside China, foreshadowing what the company faces in the rest of the world. As the New York Times article states, Europe was shifting on Huawei because of suspicions about China rather than specific actions by the company. China has had a history of hacking, its poor record on human rights and internet censorship, and Chinese cybersecurity rules that could require network operators to defend national security interests. The act of banning Huawei from their countries may also contribute to the growing rift between China and these countries.
ReplyDeleteI think Huawei will become the largest telecom company because the company has so many consumers in China and its products are more affordable. At the same time however, there is no meaning behind being the largest telecom company because technology changes as time passes. IBM was one of the biggest companies during WWII but as of now it cannot compete with many companies, such as Microsoft, and its revenue is declining (https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-shows-growth-after-22-straight-quarters-of-declining-revenues-but-has-it-turned-the-corner/). Countries such as UK are willing to cooperate with Huawei because, as stated in the original article, UK's National Cyber Security Centre believes that the country can handle the security risks. In addition, another BBC article suggests that another reason the UK wants to cooperate with Huawei is to "maintain a good relationship with China on trade and investment as it prepares for Brexit" (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46465438). I also believe that the reward of creating a 5G network outweighs the risk.
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DeleteI really like your opinion and answers to the discussion questions. Your thoughts are different from other people's but are definitely a reasonable perspective. Before your comment, I didn't believe Huawei can become the largest telecom company, but considering the price of Apple and Samsung compared to Huawei, it might be reasonable for them to become more powerful. If more small countries risk the safety issue and cooperate with Huawei, the company will be able to earn and control the telecom market of these countries. However, in big countries like America, safety is a huge issue since one small mistake can lead to a huge loss in power. Therefore, they are less likely to cooperate with Huawei in the long run. In addition, I agree that maintaining a good relationship is extremely important. However, if I were to decide, I would choose to play it safe and not trade with Huawei.
DeleteWhile I don’t doubt that the arrest of the founder’s daughter was politically motivated, I believe money and power played a role in the US’s decision to arrest Meng Wanzhou. I agree with the author’s view, being that ‘America and China are competing to become the most powerful country in the world’. Though the reason for suspicion against the company, as stated in the article, is due to their ties to the government, which I think is hypocritical of the US government. They are only taking action because China is becoming more powerful, and in response to one of the questions, I believe that Huawei has the potential to become the largest telecom company, given that there wouldn’t be constant setbacks from their opponents like the US. The fact that Huawei has developed their 5G technology before other major tech companies truly shows how they are capable, maybe even more so than their competitors.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Huawei will not be able to become the largest telecom company because even if they have a lot of sales in the rest of the world, the US market is quite large and important. The US also has a large influence on many other countries in the world, and as stated in the article, are already having other countries such as Australia also ban Huawei. This could lead to many other countries following this lead if the US pressures them enough in order to maintain good relations with them, as they have even said they will struggle to work with countries that use Huawei (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46465438). I also believe that Huawei could possibly be working with the Chinese government and their phones could be used to spy on the users, because Chinese laws state they have to work with the Chinese government and have a Communist party committee in their company. Despite being a private company, I believe that it is likely that the Chinese government has made it so they can use the products to spy based on their previous actions in limiting people's human rights.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Huawei will be able to become the largest telecom company worldwide. The US market and decision to sanction the company has and will continue to have a large effect on their attempted growth/expansion. At the World Economic Forum in January, Hu, the chairman of Huawei comments on US-China trade " 'a damaging effect on many companies including Huawei' in the trade war. Hu said that Huawei is 'probably suffering the most right now.' (asia.nikkei.com) This again reinstates how important international relations are to a companies success. Huawei will not be able to become the largest telecom company mainly because of its relationship and ties to China. Unless the US-China relations improve in any major way, Huawei will most likely not be able to tap into much of the Western Market. Thus, without the use of its technologies in the US, Huawei will not be able to be in the number one spot for telecommunications.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely no way that Huawei will become the largest telecom company. U.S. still has more innovative advancements in their technology and won't fail to impress the world. Although their 5g networking is impressive as a step up from the former used 4g network, I don't believe this discovery is that vital to out technological needs. Sure, communication will be more efficient, but that are already fast enough as is. I firmly believe that in fact China will never overcome other countries in technology by much. The world is learning and adapting fast, so whatever discoveries China happens to make will give information to other countries, which they can build off of. The U.S. China relations are already pretty botched, so I doubt that the U.S. would assent to the use of China's technology. For sure, Huawei along with china's telecom technologies will overcome the current technologies that countries around the world use today.
ReplyDeleteEven if Huawei technology allows the Chinese government to spy on the users, many UK countries still allow it, most likely because they're afraid of being left behind in new technological developments. Stalin's 5-year plans and the arms race both originated out of a desire to be as advanced as possible to reach the standards of other countries, and because China has seen a lot of growth in the telecom industry with 5G service, they also don't want to be the ones missing out when all the powerful countries have it too. That being said, though, the US putting an embargo on Chinese-imported goods and its general distrust of the Republic of China in general will definitely have a serious impact on foreign relations between the two and the US' ability to catch up once all the European countries have better telecom service. The claim that China is using this technology to spy on other countries is definitely plausible compared to what "security measures" China has instituted in its own country, and is being credited as the main reason the US is attempting to convince UK countries to ban Huawei's tech. All this conflict has to do with overarching foreign relations between the US and China is demonstrating the US' distrust of China and the impassiveness of China about the issue, since it now has more trading partners and can easily take its businesses elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI am split between believing that it is possible for Huawei to become the largest telecom company internationally. On one hand, it is serving China, which is the country with the largest population in the entire world, and has 5G already which means it has a head start already compared to many other companies worldwide which still have 4G. With 5G, Huawei's internet speeds are close to 100 times faster than 4G. However, on the other hand, China's population is rapidly declining (I believe it was a topic in one of the previous posts) with there being more elderly and fewer young people, with the young people having less and less children so that Huawei will not be gaining as much profit in the future. Additionally, 5G is slowly becoming widespread in other countries as Huawei's international competitors slowly catch up. (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/5g-phones-are-coming-next-year-heres-what-that-means-for-you.html) As for UK markets allowing Huawei even if they can spy on their users, some countries still cooperate with Huawei probably because they don't want to fall behind other countries in technology since 5G is dramatically much faster than 4G so that it is probably worth it. Finally, Huawei has already impacted the relationships between countries with the CEO of Huawei held in captivity in Canada by the order of the US. This has already caused rising tensions between Canada, the United States, and China, with the possibility of other countries getting involved as well
ReplyDeleteWhile I don’t think Huawei will become the largest telecom company, I do believe that they can continue to stay a very large company. With China still representing a large portion of the world population if they are able to capture that market with their 5G technology they can maintain their status as one of the largest telecom companies. I think it is for this reason that the UK still is willing to let them do business in the UK. They can’t afford to push out such a big company because of its potential. I also find the US not allowing it do business because of spying to be fairly hypocritical, seeing as how the US was caught spying on its own citizens (Snowden leaks). Anyways, overall I don’t think this is a huge issue so I don’t believe that it will cause any tension between the involved countries.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that Huawei will become the largest telecom company. I do believe that the U.S. still has many advancements. Though they now have 5g networking as a step-up from their former 4g networking, this will only make technology a little more efficient. I believe that China will never overcome other countries in technology. The discoveries that China comes upon first will help other countries build off of those ideas and later create their own. For this very reason, I doubt that the U.S. would approve to the use of China's technology. Overall, I do not think it will cause major tension between both countries because it is not a dire situation.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Huawei has lost its chances to become the largest telecom company because of its security concerns. This reminds me of the Facebook Security Breach, which had a huge negative impact on the company. However, I do find interesting that I could not find any statistics for evidence of the claim, which arises the possibility of it being just accusations. The US may be banning their technologies because of decreasing the expansions of Huawei. I do acknowledge China’s persistence in developing the 5G network, but even if it is developed, many people may be uncomfortable with it because of Huawei’s spying accusations. Huawei is still a powerful company, and has lots of potential of expanding as a telecom company. According to bbc.com, "This government and British telecoms operators work with Huawei at home and abroad to ensure the UK can continue to benefit from new technology while managing cyber-security risks," a Cabinet Office spokeswoman told BBC News. (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47482140) I believe the UK still wants to benefit from Huawei’s successful technology even through its security accusations.
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