National pride and high expectations: how Huawei became the spearhead of China's tech strategy
The Shenzhen company stands not only for smartphones but for the fight over China's technological independence. A trip to the front lines of Beijing's new industrial policy.
What it’s about
Huawei was on the floor in 2019. US sanctions had cut the Shenzhen company off from access to advanced chips, and the smartphone business collapsed. Anyone who bet on Huawei’s demise was wrong. The company is back – and not just as a smartphone maker, but as the spearhead of a Chinese tech strategy that is challenging the West. We were at the new research site on Lake Dianshan near Shanghai and reconstructed how this comeback works.
The symbol on the lake
160 hectares – the size of a city district. 35,000 employees are eventually meant to research and develop here. On a bridge stands Mrs Wu, filming the campus where her son has just started his first day at work. “I’m very proud,” she says – meaning not only her son but the company. In China, Huawei is no longer just an employer; it is a symbol of the will to emancipate technologically from the West. State, public and company are pulling in the same direction.
Where Huawei attacks
Three fields illustrate the new offensive: chips, AI and cars. In chips, Huawei has caught up with its own processors that work without the most advanced manufacturing technology and are still competitive. In AI, the company offers its Ascend accelerators as an alternative to Nvidia – at least for Chinese customers. In cars, Huawei doesn’t build vehicles itself; it supplies software and sensors to manufacturers like BYD, Chery and Seres. The aim: independent of the West – but at the same time globally compatible.
What this means for Europe
For Germany, Huawei’s rise is a double challenge. First, in infrastructure: the network equipment vendor still ships components into European networks, and the EU is debating exclusion rules. Second, in the car business: if Huawei dominates the cockpit of the next generation of Chinese EVs, German suppliers lose a strategic field of business. Whether Huawei can fulfil the huge expectations inside China is open. What is clear: the company is back in the game of global tech giants.
I wrote the full story together with Martin Benninghoff for Handelsblatt. This is a first impression.