[How About This Book] The Light and Shadow of Huawei That Changed the Perception of "Made in China"

Eva Dou's "Huawei Shock"
Shedding the Image of Cheap, Low-Quality Products
Now the World's No. 1 in Telecommunications Equipment
Founder Ren Zhengfei's Early Years
Exploring the Founding, Background, and Controversies
Military-Style Corporate Culture, Human Rights Issues
Ongoing Debate Over Personal Data Leaks

The negative perception of "Made in China" is beginning to shift. Shedding its previous image of being cheap and low-quality, China has risen to become the world leader in telecommunications equipment and is rapidly growing in the smartphone market, threatening established players. Even amid the US-China trade conflict, China has achieved technological self-reliance and is now supplying AI chips to the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek. However, there are still lingering negative views, such as the "backdoor" controversy, which alleges that the company contributes to the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance system through the leakage of sensitive personal data.

This book, which covers the life and entrepreneurial journey of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, as well as the latest developments, is written by a Washington Post technology journalist who previously served as a correspondent in Taiwan and China. The author strives to objectively shed light on both the background of Huawei’s growth and the controversies behind it.

Ren Zhengfei was born in October 1944, just before the outbreak of World War II, to parents who ran a bookstore. His father, Ren Moxun, worked as an accountant at a Nationalist military factory during the war with Japan, and because of this background, he became a target for "re-education" during the Cultural Revolution. Ren Zhengfei was also affected by these circumstances and was assigned as a worker to Unit 011, a secret military base in Guizhou that produced aircraft. Before being promoted to engineer, he spent a significant amount of time working as a cook and plumber. By being assigned to an industrial site where technology was accumulated, rather than to rural areas, he was able to lay the technical foundation that would later enable him to establish Huawei. During this period, he also acquired the combative attitude known as the "wolf spirit."

Ren Zhengfei’s entry into the Communist Party was prompted by his development of a precision air pressure generator in 1977. At the time, only crude Soviet-made mercury gauges were available, but he developed equipment with less than 20% deviation, earning him recognition as a "labor hero." He participated in the National Science Conference as the youngest attendee (33 years old) among 6,000 participants, leaving a strong impression on officials and joining the Communist Party as a member of the engineering corps.

However, after the engineering corps was disbanded due to Deng Xiaoping’s privatization policy, Ren was discharged and moved to Shenzhen, which was being developed as a special economic zone. Shenzhen provided the decisive opportunity for the founding and growth of Huawei. Through his connections with Shenzhen city officials, Ren was able to establish links with the central government and lay the groundwork for business expansion.

The author attempts to present a balanced account of both the achievements and shortcomings of Ren Zhengfei’s early life, as well as Huawei’s founding and growth. Huawei was established in February 1987 as part of a pilot policy to legalize private technology companies. Founded with an investment of 21,000 yuan from each of five investors, Huawei began by assembling and selling telephone switchboard components on the rooftop of an eight-story building. Soon after, the company began manufacturing and selling its own products, but these were essentially copies of circuit boards supplied to them, amounting to industrial espionage. Ren explained, "At that time, China was a legal vacuum where intellectual property (IP) protection laws were either weak or nonexistent, so such practices were not uncommon."

In April 1993, through a joint venture with Mobeco?jointly funded by 17 provincial and municipal telecommunications bureaus?Huawei secured financing from banks that only lent to state-owned enterprises. Leveraging the authority of these local telecom bureaus, Huawei replaced telephone switchboards throughout the cities with its own products. In return, it offered an annual dividend yield of 30%. By today’s standards, this would be a clear conflict of interest, but at the time, China was in a transitional period toward capitalism, with either no relevant regulations or ineffective enforcement.

Ren Zhengfei ran the company like a military organization. Employees were called "iron soldiers," managers were "generals," engineers were "soldiers," and the sales team was referred to as "guerrillas," emphasizing order and loyalty within the organization. New hires underwent military-style training, and assignments to remote or harsh regions were considered "combat experience" that counted toward promotions. In particular, working in Xinjiang?a region with serious human rights issues?was also used as a promotion point. He even set a rule that, at client dinners, employees had to drink more than the client. Bribery-like practices, such as providing training or travel expenses and cash payments, were also commonplace. Under this coercive organizational culture, many employees suffered from depression and gastrointestinal disorders, and between 2006 and 2007, six employees took their own lives. Ren Zhengfei himself confessed that he had also been exposed to such risks.

Although Huawei has grown into a global company, it is not free from criticism that it cooperates with the Communist Party to strengthen surveillance systems. China supplies "Safe City" products?not only domestically but also to African and Middle Eastern countries?including smart glasses that can identify individuals in a crowd, devices that can eavesdrop on conversations within a 10-meter radius, and technologies that track suspects using voice information. While Huawei denies the existence of backdoor functions that could be used to collect sensitive information, the international community remains wary, arguing that such capabilities are technically plausible.

However, this is not an issue unique to China. According to Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, the NSA also hacked Huawei’s servers in 2009, accessed internal emails, and infiltrated product source codes to collect information on countries using Huawei products. In response, a Huawei spokesperson in the US criticized, "What is absurd is that what they are doing to us is exactly what they have claimed China does to us through Huawei."

Despite its substantial length of 584 pages, the book includes character introductions and a timeline at the beginning and end to aid reader understanding. While the author strives to maintain as objective a perspective as possible, even Huawei’s success factors may be portrayed negatively, leaving an overall impression of a critical viewpoint.

Huawei Shock | Written by Eva Dou | Translated by Lee Kyungnam | Saenggakui Him | 584 pages | 32,000 won