Huawei Technologies, one of China’s biggest corporate success stories, is a prime example of Beijing’s wish that Chinese companies should “go global”.
Over the past decade, Huawei has become the second-largest manufacturer of mobile network equipment, supplying kit to telecoms operators around the world. It is now hoping to provide a mobile network for London Underground.
But Huawei has been dogged by controversy in the US, the world’s most lucrative mobile market, because Ren Zhengfei, its founder, was an officer in the People’s Liberation Army. Concerns persist in Washington that Huawei could have close links to the military, and that this situation might threaten the security of its customers’ telecoms networks.