July 2020. Fast-growing Huawei is arguably China’s first global multinational. The Shenzhen-based company makes mobile phones, base stations and the intelligent routers that facilitate communications around the world. But its success increasingly concerns the US, which argues Huawei is ultimately beholden to the Chinese Communist party and has the capability to engage in covert surveillance where its equipment is used. Founded in 1987 by a former technical officer in the People’s Liberation Army, Ren Zhengfei, it now employs 194,000 people and made a profit of 8.9 Billion US Dollars in 2019. The company successfully targeted the UK early on. It has supplied BT since 2003 and gradually expanded to the point where it agreed to create a special unit in Banbury, known as the Cell, where the spy agency GCHQ could review and monitor its software code. Vodafone is another key customer.
Jul 2020. Huawei 5G Decision
