Huawei is the manifestation of everything the US fears about China: a high-tech group, founded by a former army officer, that it believes has ties to the Communist party and the wherewithal to spy and steal intellectual property.
The inconvenient truth for the US is that it is a very large company, turning over Rmb603.6bn ($96bn) last year and eclipsing Ericsson as the biggest vendor of telecoms equipment.
It is the third-biggest seller of handsets, and is in a race to lead the development of 5G, the next-generation mobile standard and an essential technology for the era of connected devices. Control over 5G was one reason Donald Trump blocked Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm.