House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company

by Eva Dou

The untold story of the mysterious family dynasty at the center of China's Huawei.

On December 1, 2018, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of China's most powerful company, Huawei Technologies, was detained at the request of U.S. authorities as she prepared to board a flight out of Vancouver, Canada. The detention of Huawei's female scion set the U.S.-China trade skirmish on fire - and, for the first time, revealed the Ren family's prominence in Beijing's power structure.

In The Listening State, acclaimed Washington Post reporter Eva Dou exposes the untold story of the rise of Ren Zhengfei and the mysterious family dynasty at the center of Huawei, whose connections to state apparatus reveal a deeper truth about China's surveillance web and its global ambitions. Through its technologies, Huawei has helped solidify and enforce China's growing police state, in which outspoken entrepreneurs like Jack Ma have been silenced, tycoons have disappeared, and executives must put patriotism above profit.

Based on over a decade of on-the-ground reporting and an astonishing trove of confidential documents never published in English, The Listening State paints an epic story of familial and political intrigue that shines a clarifying light on how business and government work together in an authoritarian state, and how companies fit into China's international ambitions under Xi Jinping.

The story of Ren Zhengfei and Huawei exposes the human face of China's modern security state and gets to the heart of the central questions of the U.S.-China trade How did these turbocharged Chinese companies emerge? Who really controls them? And what does China's growing surveillance web mean for the Chinese people - and for the rest of the world?

Genres: China, Business, Nonfiction, History, Technology, Politics, Economics

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 2025

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting topic, that ... unfortunately, hasn't been turned into a good book.
How could that happen?

"House of Huawei" feels mostly like a detailed chronicle of Huawei composed of information that is already available (in news/articles already published). True, not everything is equally easily accessible (when it comes to China), so some digging was required, but the author doesn't mention any new interviews, doesn't quote anyone directly, and doesn't refer to any informers. Well, maybe the Chinese didn't trust her, so she had to scavenge what she could find, but it makes the book feel "flat".

On top of that, it's mostly reporting the noted facts. No in-depth analysis, no interpretation - on one hand, it initially creates an impression of absolute objectivism; on the other one, I had a feeling she would copy anything she finds without a deeper thought ("Hey, can this be bullshit PR?").

You won't learn much from "House of Huawei". Support of the Party? Yes. The ethos of extremely hard work? Yes. Conflict with ZTE? Yes. Constraints enforced by US sanctions (esp. regarding 5G)? Yes. But all the key questions remained unanswered - bah, what is more - it feels like the author didn't even try to answer them.

[Chip Huyen]

Great book to learn about Huawei's fascinating culture, which is very different from American corporate cultures (though I didn't really like how the Chinese culture is portrayed).

1. "Sacrifice for the company"
1/3 of the senior quit and rejoined at entry level when asked by the company. If Deng (the country leader) could face setbacks and come back 3 times, why can't you?

2. Anti profit maximization
While American corporates are required to maximize profits for shareholders, Huawei intentionally does not do that. They want to be #1 technology company in the world.

3. Ownership structure
Ren, the founder, owns only 1% of the company. Leadership owns 3%.
The rest belongs to employees (past and present), which totals 169,054 as of late 2025

4. Party alignment
The company has a chief party secretary to make sure the company align with the party's goal. The chief party secretary has a lot of power, including vetoing any promotions.

[Jonathan Mckay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huawei is the one global tech giant that is unmistakably Chinese — which makes it a perfect subject for a corporate history. House of Huawei captures some of the intrigue, but avoids the hardest questions.

The company’s governance, famously opaque, is treated as an afterthought. Yet Huawei’s “employee shareholding system” is not a detail; it is a microcosm of how power and opacity work in China. Likewise, its culture is only sketched but not filled in — a sharper, hungrier version of a typical Chinese firm, willing to push the limits but not fundamentally alien.

But the narrative leans too heavily on founder Ren Zhengfei and his family. While his role is undeniable, the best organizational histories introduce a cast of characters who collectively define the institution. Here, the supporting cast is absent.

More damaging are the omissions. How exactly did Huawei succeed? Were they selling at cost, outcompeting rivals with sales discipline, or genuinely innovating in smartphones? These are not trivial accomplishments, but the book provides no real answers. And on the central geopolitical question — whether Huawei serves the Chinese state — the author sidesteps. If this book cannot take a stance, who can?

Readable, House of Huawei is an introduction, not a definitive account. For a company as consequential as Huawei, the lack of explanation and argument leaves the reader unsatisfied.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

In House of Huawei, Washington Post technology policy reporter Eva Dou traces the history of Chinese technology firm Huawei, from its founding by Ren Zhengfei in 1987 to its various controversies and geopolitical tensions that extend to the present day. The inner workings and motives of the company are quite secretive, so Dou's research and coverage seems largely limited to information she could scour from published sources, rather than the approach of most business exposé books where investigative reporters track down as many primary sources as possible for interview and commentary (in an extreme example, John Carreyrou Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup). That being said, I don't think this was really in Dou's control given her subject matter here. For casual readers, this book will likely read as an info dump, but for those with a vested or prior interest in global technology and West-China relations, this book will be an interesting read.

My statistics:
Book 126 for 2025
Book 2052 cumulatively

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very interested in Huawei -- as a technology developer, as a major force in geopolitics, and as a business case study. This book is probably the best summary of Huawei I've found, but is essentially journalism and not really high quality analysis or insight (technical or business or political).

Overall -- Huawei may or may not have some military origins (although not anywhere near as much as true state owned enterprises such as ZTE), and has some level of involvement by MSS (unclear how much, and it is absolutely clear that their competitors globally, including US and European companies, have massive intelligence involvement). It's doing a great job at making good 5G carrier gear as well as high-end cellphones, including nearly cutting edge processors, but unfortunately this book didn't provide any insights into any of that beyond "these questions exist and here's some basic public information".

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite the detailed history of the Chinese company Huawei, its owner/founder and key executives. The history of the company and all of the intrigues surrounding it were very fascinating for much of the book. Sometimes the parts about Ren Zhengfei’s family although relevant to an extent were boring. Lots of information and speculation about the company's relationship to spying and the arrest and trial of Ren's daughter, Meng Wanzhou. Overall, a pretty interesting book. There is an excellent ‘Timeline of Events’ at the end of the book.
Thanks to Portfolio Books for the copy of the book to read and review.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of information about Huawei, its creator and his team, controversies and accusations of spy activities for the People Republic of China. I was quite wary that the book can be directly or indirectly supporting one of the sides in the conflict, but the author definitely tries to be unbiased. My short summary: Huawei wasn’t created for spying but the authoritarian state they are in may have pushed them to (or maybe not). They are fine supporting other authoritarian regimes (Iraq, North Korea, Russia) as well as prosecution of minorities (esp. Uyghur) in China, playing the card: if not we then someone else would have done it.

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the company was born in 1944. His father owned a bookstore, which among others, had a collection of communist books, for this it was closed. It hasn’t helped his dad, who in the communist China was arrested and spent 10 years in prison. Ren was reading a lot, in the 1960s working as military engineers (just construction, no communication). In 1979 Ren Zhengfei publishes a book about his invention A Floating-Ball Precision Pressure Generator—Air Pressure Balance. In 1987, when Shenzhen allows individuals to set up minjian private tech companies, Ren registered Huawei Technologies Co. Formally, there are five owners (who gave money or were in authority/party to push the project). The firm initially creates switches for telephone systems. As early as 1990 the company actively pushes R&D. Somewehere in 1991–1992 (exact date unclear) Huawei registers as a jitisuoyouzhi, or collectively owned company. Because of the limit of no more that 50 shareholders, all employees that own company stock are united into a trade union that represents them. Ren owns only about 1% of shares, the rest is in the trade union. Because the company was successful, it becomes one of eight companies selected by Beijing for a $1 billion national semiconductor development program in 1996.

The company enters the foreign markets: Hong Kong, Russia, developing countries, with much lower prices than its Western competitors and adequate quality. While there are rumors about possible backdoors, in some cases the company not only installs but operates the system. Charles Clancy, who was a research leader with the National Security Agency, told a Senate committee that Huawei’s managed services gave the company’s employees broad access to overseas networks without any hacks having to take place. “A back door is not needed if you already have a key to the front door.” The company through phony intermediaries supplies equipment to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea. It cooperates with local authorities, which means compliance with e.g. tapping communications of opposition in Iran and Turkey.

Upon investigations by the USA the company representatives claim that they are not aware about Article 11 of China’s State Security Law: ‘A state security organ may inspect the electronic communication instruments and appliances and other similar equipment and installations belonging to any organization or individual.’ If, as Snowden shows, NSA actively tapped even partners like Germany and even had two moles in Huawei, it is reasonable to assume that PRC does the same if it can.

There is no bullet-proof evidence of any spying by Huawei for China, only indirect stuff like the report from the French newspaper Le Monde that published an exposé revealing that officials at the African Union’s headquarters had discovered its servers were mysteriously sending data to China each night between midnight and 2:00 a.m. The equipment in question had been supplied by Huawei. It has never been proven that any sensitive info was leaked that way. Moreover, in 2010 in the United Kingdom opens The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC), commonly referred as “the Cell”, where Huawei will allow the UK government to examine its equipment for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It was a center where UK officials could look under the hood of Huawei’s gear to see for themselves if it was safe, the first such center that Huawei had opened in the world. The Cell wasn’t too far from Cheltenham, where Britain’s signals-intelligence agency, GCHQ, the British equivalent to the NSA, was based. Huawei technically owned the Cell and supplied the funding, but GCHQ ran the show. Without clearance, Huawei executives couldn’t even access the center. The intelligence agency vetted prospective employees, requiring all staffers to have “Developed Vetting” security clearance, the level required for members of the British intelligence services. It meant that they were cleared for frequent, uncontrolled access to classified information. Therefore, after the USA started actively impeding Huawei's growth abroad, Brits were less than happy.

At the same time, there is proof that local Chinese security uses their tech to monitor Uyghurs. In 2016 Huawei was named the Xinjiang region’s strategic partner for deploying surveillance products. Dated January 8, 2018, the seven-page internal report outlining the test performance of a facial-recognition tracking system. It listed dozens of functions they had tested, such as “real-time face capture” and “offline maps.” There were two lines that jumped out:
Supports Offline File Uyghur Alarm: Passed
Supports Recognition Based on Age, Sex, Ethnicity and Angle of Facial Images: Passed
i.e. the system was trained to detect Uyghur not because they did anything but because they were Uyghur.

Overall, a good collection of publicly available data, and a worthy read.

[Liza Shashenkova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can technological advancement ever truly be politically neutral?

I had never appreciated quite how essential telecommunications infrastructure is to understanding modern geopolitics. House of Huawei reinforced the idea that data has indeed become the new oil, and whoever controls the networks that carry it holds extraordinary strategic influence. Huawei’s rise wasn’t simply the story of a successful technology company. It is about China’s rise, national identity and technology as a geopolitical weapon.

What fascinated me most was China’s enduring obsession with self-reliance, particularly in strategically important industries such as telecommunications. The country’s determination to reduce dependence on foreign technology helps explain many of its long-term ambitions, from domestic innovation to initiatives like the Belt and Road. Running beneath it all is a powerful desire to be taken seriously as a global power. The Opium Wars and Iraq served as powerful reminders of the consequences of weakness.

Although this is an impressively researched and data-rich work of journalism, I didn’t find it to be a particularly compelling narrative. That’s largely a matter of personal taste, especially having recently read Patrick Radden Keefe, whose storytelling sets an exceptionally high bar. For me, the book came alive with the case of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s transformation into a global giant, and the glimpses into its unusual corporate culture. However large sections on Ren Zhengfei’s early life and the more technical explanations of semiconductor production was fundamentally dull.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding journalistic account of the rise and flourishing of the Chinese technology firm Huawei that takes the reader from the firm’s origins up through the conclusion of a highly visible trial of its CFO in Canada as part of growing concerns over whether the firm is an arm of the Chinese government and thus a security risk or something less - a highly innovative firm that grew in part through its linkages with the government but has a more independent course.

What is the conclusion? Who knows!? And similar concerns could be raised about Apple, Microsoft, and other firms. An account such as Eva Dou provides in her book provides huge amounts of detail that go a long way towards establishing a link with the government. However, a book like this lacks - and will always lack - a clear account of the firm’s decision and its agency - so there will always be uncertainty about the key issues, especially given the complexity of geopolitics. So readers will need to draw their own conclusions - although it is clear why all the parties in the Huawei drama have gotten involved the way they did.

The situation at the end of Ms. Dow’s book can only have gotten more involved and filled with concerns about the role of government with tech firms since the 2024 election and the coming of the second Trump administration, along with its tariffs and hostile foreign policy. Too bad an update of Ms. Dow’s book is unlikely.

For someone interested in getting up to speed on Huawei and its strategies, this is a fine book and a requirement for further reading.

[Parvathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book club read was a perfect addition to my 'read China' endeavour. Written by the business journalist Eva Dou, it traces the rise of the Chinese company Huawei into world leadership in 5G and its controversial ban by many Western countries. In the process, the book is also a good primer on the growth of China-style capitalism in the country.

Dou chronicles the life of founder Ren Zhengfai, his less-than-fortunate childhood (his school teacher father served in a labour camp during Mao's Cultural Revolution), the opportunities he grabs in the Deng Xiaoping era to form Huawei and the world leadership he drives Huawei to in the 2000s.

How tied in with the Chinese government is Huawei, and do they really spy for them? Do they supply sensitive technology to Iran and North Korea? Did it provide ethnic-based surveillance tech to the Chinese government for it to target the Uighars? Dou speculates on all of this and more, as she describes Huawei becoming a symbol of the West's distrust of China. The book gives someone like me, with a peripheral knowledge of the Huawei story, a good lesson on it. It may not be good enough for those looking for greater depth and opinion.

A moderate recommend.

[Alex O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, if rosy, account

[Katie Putz · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Work read and mostly read in December but I held off marking it finished for my interview with the author to come out]

If you even remotely pay attention to US foreign policy you've probably heard of Huawei in the context of national security (in conversations that frankly parallel those about TikTok). If you're not American, you know the company for their phones or their 5G tech. Huawei, despite a rough few years that included the arrest of its founder's daughter (the company's CFO in 2018 in Canada), continues to lead global markets in 5G equipment sales.

Dou's book traces the company's history with an unparalleled level of detail, from it's founder Ren Zhengfei's upbringing amid the Cultural Revolution, to it's early days as just one of many nascent tech companies, to its extraordinary growth in the last decade -- and all along the way the ways the Chinese state has touched the company and the ways the company has become a critical aspect of Beijing's economic and geopolitical aspirations, as Dou told me.

It's definitely an "in the weeds" book, not necessarily for the casual reader, with lots of details about the telecommunications industry and how business works in China.

[Simonas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Na ir prasikankinau norėdamas pabaigti. Labai nūdnai parašyta, daug ankstyvosios istorijos ir pavardžių - nors kiniški verslo ypatumai tikrai entertaining turinys, bet taip užvelta visokiom pavardėm ir nelabai aišku kam reikalingais faktais, kad tenka raidžių ieškoti smėlyje. Ačiū, kitas.

[Randy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a quick look at a few sections, but did read the last chapter carefully, so my opinion may not be an accurate assessment of the book. This book is clearly biased and feels a little dated already given the development in the last couple of years.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tale of a technology giant in China ... quite possibly the largest in China and the most potent in the world. The company was founded by a man named Ren Zhengfei and then, when the firm achieved some measure of success, the Communist Party entered the fray and insinuated itself into the firm ... not day-to-day management, but in all the important decisions. Later on, Ren's daughter Meng Wanzhou rose in the organization, but today it is still difficult to determine who really controls Huawei.

I had trouble figuring out what the author's point was ... the facts are presented, but not much analysis was given. It was hard to tell whether the author was trying to give the firm some humanity, or simply reporting on a business and how the US fought to keep it at bay.

On a defensive slant, there was some talk of how China respects IP rights of others and free speech, but it just wasn't believable here. For example, the much-ballyhooed C+CO8 switch that initially put Huawei on the map in the technology world, proved to be just another example of stolen IP, in this case the AT&T No. 5 switch.

Organizationally, the Notes for supplementary information, such as they are, made no sense at all. Chapter 2 listed 60 endnotes in superscript, but there were actually no notes in the back of the book/the section/or the chapter ... none. Notes in this book are nowhere to be found. Don't know if it was a printing mistake or what, but it looked pretty silly after awhile.

All in all, not a bad tale but plagued with a few awkward issues.

[Garrett Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping, deeply reported look at how Huawei rose from a startup to a global flashpoint in geopolitics and technology. Dou avoids simplistic narratives, instead unpacking the complex mix of innovation, state influence, and international suspicion with clarity and pace. Dense at times, but ultimately a smart, timely read for anyone interested in how tech and global power now collide.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reconstruction of Huawei’s history. Had no idea how deep the lore went.

Also probably one of the best single books to read to get a grasp on how chinese industrial policy/economic dev in the 90s/2000s occurred.

[Bryson Boddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strong second half. A great piece of journalism that defies the odds since so little information is public on this subject. Was much more interesting to read about the company as a geopolitical pawn than its origin story.

[Jackson Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story

[Tiago Flora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Start with this excerpt from Wikipedia:

According to the company founder Ren Zhengfei, the name Huawei comes from a slogan he saw on a wall, "Zhonghua youwei" meaning "China has achievements" (中华有为; Zhōng huá yǒu wéi), when he was starting up the company and needed a name. (...) Huawei has also been translated as "splendid achievement" or "China is able," which are possible readings of the name.

Huawei is remarkable by any definition of a remarkable company. It got to the top of its field in 5G last decade, showing it could do "homegrown" innovation. It's had staff (ostensibly) die of overwork, stay around for longer than advisable in warzones, and a diplomatic-spat-level-high-profile CFO detainment. And now it sells everything from switches to phones to cars.

The company certainly deserves the attention it got during Trump's first term. There are several comments gravitating around any Huawei conversation that could branch off into their own topic, like how a Chinese upstart could reach the heights of telecommunications that Americans decided to give up when they broke up AT&T. Eva Dou did a decent job tracking the timeline of events that surrounded Huawei from inception to Trumpian downfall.

Unfortunately, that's most of what the book does - it tracks a timeline. The company's turnaround in the last few years is not really discussed, despite this book being published in 2025. Politics are emphasized beyond probable relevance - and that's saying something! - and it makes you realize the book was certainly written by a journalist. Despite that, there is very little new information. It seems like the author didn't get a chance to interview many people; the book is superficial. I don't take this shallowness too much to its detriment - there are quite a few books on Huawei, and perhaps they're more insightful.

Perhaps that's the greatest longing I got from reading this book: I wish it was written by a Vikram Sekar type. Or even a semiconductor analyst. Someone with a greater understanding of and interest in the technologies at play would have provided a much richer history of the company's achievements, questionable practices, and risks. But alas, only (very few) journalists get book leaves from their work. I think Qualcomm should adopt the practice, and let someone like Vikram write a book or two about their industry.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva Dou’s “House of Huawei” delivers a masterful exposé of the enigmatic telecommunications giant that reshaped global technology and geopolitics. Washington Post technology reporter Dou meticulously traces Huawei’s journey from a small Shenzhen startup to a corporate behemoth, unraveling the intricate ties between its reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, and the Chinese state apparatus. The book’s greatest strength lies in its balanced yet unflinching examination of Huawei’s dual identity: a driver of innovation and a vehicle for Beijing’s strategic ambitions. Ren Zhengfei’s formative experiences—surviving the Cultural Revolution and his military background—forged Huawei’s “wolf culture” of relentless ambition and resilience. Dou reveals how these traits fueled aggressive expansion into high-risk markets like Iran and Libya, while Huawei’s employee ownership model masked opaque governance structures influenced by internal Communist Party committees. The 2018 detention of Ren’s daughter, CFO Meng Wanzhou, becomes a pivotal lens for exploring U.S.-China tensions, illustrating how Huawei’s rise triggered security fears and trade wars. Dou’s research excels in demystifying Huawei’s technological dominance, particularly in 5G, while confronting allegations of espionage and intellectual property theft. She acknowledges the company’s staggering R&D investments and adaptive survival tactics against U.S. sanctions, yet underscores a sobering truth: Huawei’s success is inextricable from state support and surveillance mandates. The narrative avoids sensationalism, instead presenting a nuanced portrait of corporate-state symbiosis in modern China. Critically, the book transcends corporate biography to frame Huawei as a microcosm of China’s global ascent—blending national pride with geopolitical friction. Dou’s access to confidential documents and interviews provides unprecedented depth, though the dense telecom industry details may challenge casual readers. Ultimately, “House of Huawei” is indispensable for understanding how technology, power, and authoritarian governance converge in the 21st century. Dou’s achievement is a timely, clear-eyed chronicle that transforms Huawei’s secretive legacy into a compelling study of ambition and influence.

[bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive – albeit dull and somewhat mechanical – corporate history of Huawei, a “company made in the image of its nation.”

[Ashwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I haven’t followed developments around China or Huawei as closely as I should have — which is a bit of a shame. That made this book quite eye-opening for me, since most of the information was new.

The story reflects a growing reality: more and more tech companies around the world are being drawn into the orbit of state surveillance — and this issue isn't limited to China or North Korea. The book traces Huawei’s complex journey, highlighting how in countries like India, Russia, or China, doing business often means aligning with the government rather than opposing it — because the government is deeply embedded in business itself.

What’s remarkable is how Huawei managed to anticipate political shifts and stay on the right side of the Chinese authorities. One moment that really stood out was when the founder’s daughter calmly handed over her phone and laptop to officials — perhaps a reflection of a culture where cooperation with the government is seen as a given.

The author makes an important point: Huawei isn’t unique. From IBM to other major corporations, many have worked with authoritarian regimes, including during the Nazi era. Interestingly, the book refrains from taking a strong stance — it lets the reader form their own opinion.

What I found lacking, though, was any deep dive into Huawei’s actual technology or business strategy. I would’ve loved more insight into how they developed their tech and achieved global competitiveness.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This history of Huawei was fine, but not much more than that. While all the information is there, the experience of reading felt very much like reading a Wikipedia article about the company. I was hoping for more literary flair or deep analysis.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 1 out of 5]

A yawn-inducing nothingburger.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found the first part pretty dry and slow, but the second half was rich with political and corporate drama and went by fast

[Jung · Rating 1 out of 5]

May the 4th Be With You - Star Wars Day

Huawei’s emergence as one of the most powerful tech companies in the world is a story of ambition, persistence, and the complicated terrain of global politics. In "House of Huawei", Eva Dou explores the company’s deep roots, rapid expansion, and the growing scrutiny it has faced as it climbed to the top of the telecommunications industry. The book does not simply follow the company’s timeline — it delves into the people, policies, and politics that shaped Huawei’s destiny, beginning with its founder, Ren Zhengfei, and extending to international tensions that led to the arrest of his daughter, Meng Wanzhou. The account is rich in historical context and global developments, providing readers with a comprehensive view of how Huawei became emblematic of the changing balance of global technological power.

Ren Zhengfei was born in 1944 in a poor region of China’s Guizhou province. Life in rural China during that period was difficult, and Ren experienced firsthand the hardship and scarcity of the time. After completing university, he joined the military and worked in engineering-related roles. Though critics have pointed to this military background as suspicious, Ren has maintained that his role involved basic construction tasks and was unrelated to telecommunications. His service nonetheless helped him gain trust within the establishment, and he later became a member of the Chinese Communist Party — a decision that, while common for the era, would later draw attention due to his company’s rise in influence.

In the early 1980s, China was undergoing massive economic reforms, opening its doors to market-driven practices. The city of Shenzhen, close to the capitalist hub of Hong Kong, was designated a Special Economic Zone, created to attract foreign investment while shielding the country from potential cultural influences. When Ren visited Shenzhen during its early development, he saw the potential for business and innovation. In 1987, he founded Huawei, initially focusing on selling telephone switches. The goal was not just distribution but innovation — Ren wanted Huawei to produce its own sophisticated telecommunications products.

By the 1990s, Huawei was aiming to design advanced digital switches capable of handling tens of thousands of calls. The company’s early engineers worked under intense pressure, often sleeping in their offices and enduring harsh conditions. Despite the challenges, Huawei succeeded in building systems that allowed China to become less reliant on imported technology. This achievement aligned with national priorities, as a self-sufficient tech infrastructure was seen as critical to China's modernization. Huawei’s progress was thus viewed positively by many in the Chinese government, and its potential uses in areas like surveillance were acknowledged as part of its utility in a rapidly digitizing society.

Ren’s ambitions extended beyond China. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Huawei expanded into global markets, often beginning with developing countries that were underserved by existing telecom providers. Working in regions with political instability and limited infrastructure, Huawei’s employees faced tough conditions. These overseas deployments became a hallmark of company culture, seen as trials that built resilience and loyalty. Huawei’s leadership adopted a quasi-military structure internally, emphasizing discipline and teamwork, reflective of Ren’s own background and management philosophy. Through this strategy, the company grew rapidly, opening offices around the world and challenging Western firms in various markets.

The company’s success wasn’t without internal strain. By the mid-2000s, some employees faced extreme work-related stress, and several cases of overwork-related health issues and even deaths were reported. This led to a national conversation in China about corporate pressure and worker wellbeing. Huawei responded by implementing policies to reduce overtime and reframing its demanding culture in more positive terms. Despite these challenges, Huawei continued to flourish, building a vast campus and becoming one of China’s most valuable and admired private enterprises.

As Huawei’s international footprint expanded, so did the level of scrutiny. In the United States, questions began to emerge about the company’s structure, governance, and possible ties to the Chinese state. In 2011, in an effort to improve transparency and build trust, Huawei invited the U.S. government to investigate its operations. The subsequent congressional report concluded that Huawei and other Chinese companies could not be considered free from state influence, sparking concern about their presence in critical infrastructure like telecommunications networks. Although Huawei denied any wrongdoing and reaffirmed its independence, the report shaped public and governmental attitudes in the West for years to come.

In the midst of these concerns, attention turned to Huawei’s business dealings in countries like Iran. In particular, a company called Skycom — believed to be a proxy for Huawei — was discovered to have done business in Iran during a period when U.S. sanctions were in place. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO and Ren Zhengfei’s daughter, was listed as a board member of Skycom. When this connection was brought to light, it prompted further investigation and concern from international financial institutions. Although Meng defended the legality of Huawei’s actions, the issue continued to simmer under the surface of broader geopolitical tensions.

In 2018, those tensions boiled over. Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada on behalf of the United States, which sought her extradition on fraud charges related to Huawei’s dealings in Iran. Her arrest became a flashpoint in the already complex U.S.–China relationship. China responded with the detention of two Canadian citizens, which many observers saw as retaliation. Meng remained under house arrest in Vancouver for nearly three years, during which Huawei’s position in the global tech sector was increasingly contested. The U.S. escalated its campaign against the company, citing national security concerns and issuing sanctions that restricted Huawei’s access to critical American technologies, including semiconductors and software.

While some countries followed the U.S. lead in limiting Huawei’s role in their 5G infrastructure, others maintained a neutral or supportive stance. Some leaders publicly stated they had no issue with Huawei’s presence, citing their country’s transparency or lack of secrets. Meanwhile, the sanctions significantly impacted Huawei’s supply chain, forcing the company to innovate and look for alternative solutions. Despite these constraints, Huawei continued to operate globally, even launching new smartphone models that raised questions about how it had managed to source or develop advanced components under the technology restrictions.

Meng was eventually released in 2021 after negotiations between the U.S. and Chinese governments. She returned to China to a hero’s welcome, while the two Canadian detainees were also freed. Although the incident was resolved diplomatically, it underscored the broader climate of mistrust between global powers. Huawei remained under pressure, but it had also demonstrated resilience in navigating both commercial and political challenges.

The story of Huawei is not one of simple villainy or heroism. Rather, it reflects the intricate and often conflicting dynamics of modern global business — where innovation, national interest, and political competition frequently overlap. In Huawei’s case, the company’s achievements in advancing communications technology, expanding global connectivity, and building one of the world’s most recognized brands are undeniable. At the same time, its story is entangled in the broader narrative of U.S.–China rivalry, where technology companies are increasingly viewed through the lens of national security.

Eva Dou’s "House of Huawei" invites readers to see beyond headlines and controversies, encouraging a deeper understanding of how a single company can come to symbolize both technological advancement and geopolitical uncertainty. While perspectives on Huawei may differ depending on one’s political position or national interests, the company’s journey offers a compelling case study of 21st-century global complexity — one in which innovation, identity, and power all intersect.

[Henry Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huawei’s history is full of parallels to 2025’s trade war and the news surrounding Deepseek’s LLM. We’ll never know how intentionally China controlled Huawei as they were perilously accused. The author does a great job explaining China’s business culture and economic transitions and the different ways in which the state and business intersect.

“ZTE’s plight set off alarm bells across China. Security hawks in Beijing saw it as proof that the country needed to reduce its reliance on US technology as fast as possible. For years, the idea that Washington could assassinate Chinese tech companies by severing their supply chains had floated in the realm of conspiracy theory. Few in Beijing believed that such a thing was possible in an age of globalized supply chains. But now it was real.”

“Business was heavily based on guanxi, or personal connections. And building guanxi with prospective clients involved heavy rounds of drinking and lavish gifts… Polite protocol for a business dinner involved breaking out the baijiu, a clear sorghum spirit that has an eye-watering 120-proof kick, and pouring round and round of shots over a rotating parade of exquisite side dishes. The protocol also involved getting drunker than your clients to show respect for them. One early Huawei executive wrote about having to excuse himself for a vomit break while entertaining customers - not an uncommon occurrence.

[Dylan Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A country without its own program-controlled switches is like one without an army."

Dou has a hard job here; Huawei is not exactly forthcoming about many aspects of its history, and many aspects of Ren Zhengfai's life and career. (Why did he and his first wife get divorced? Did she help him get initial investment for Huawei? Wildly unclear). But she's able, through what interviews she did manage, archival documents, public court records, and Wikileaks releases, to paint a pretty clear portrait of the company.

What emerges is a very Muskian firm that consistently overpromises and delivers far behind schedule. An early business venture that promised investors guaranteed 30% returns is a good indication of the level of shadiness we're dealing with, as is the three year delay that the Kenyan teleco Safaricom remembers, which led them to briefly cancel their Huawei contract. But if Huawei tech was often late and often less reliable than, say, Ericcson, it was also dramatically cheaper and Dou chronicles a level of pressure on salesmen that is, frankly, batshit insane:

On January 28, 1996, Ren Zhengfei held Huawei’s first "mass-resignation ceremony.” Each head of a regional sales office was told to prepare two reports: a work summary and a written resignation. “I will only sign one of the reports,” Ren said.

“Dear Chairman,” the resignation letter said, “I have fought for the company’s sales development and sacrificed my youth. But in the few years that I’ve worked on the sales front lines, my technical and business ability may not have kept up…. If through the process of examination and selection, the company identifies a more suitable person for sales work, I will sincerely resign from my current position.”

Huawei had started out in rural markets, and many of its early sales managers were provincial in their experience and network of contacts. As Ren sought to go national and international, he decided to make the entire sales staff resign and reapply for their jobs. “The mountain goat must outrun the lion to not be eaten,” he had told them ahead of the event. “All departments and sections must optimize and eat the lazy goats, the goats that do not learn or progress, and the goats with no sense of responsibility.”

Now Ren took the podium. “Being an executive at Huawei should be understood as a responsibility, a choice to sacrifice personal happiness,” he said.

The resigning sales managers were allowed to speak in turn, some choking back tears. “As a Huawei person, I’m willing to be a paving stone,” one said. “If I can’t keep up with the pace of the company’s development, I’m willing to let new people, and higher-level people, take over my job,” another offered. “My youth and ability are limited, and Huawei’s future is long,” a third said. “I can’t hold back the company because of me.”

In the end, Ren accepted the resignation of six of the twenty-six sales branch chiefs and turned over some 30 percent of the sales staff. Huawei executives would often cite the mass resignation as an example of who they were as “Huawei people.” They could go up or down according to the needs of the company."

It brings to mind Dennis Feinstein forcing his CFO to sit through interviews with his potential replacements. Ren, naturally, compared this to how Deng Xiaoping was willing to be purged several times and then fight his way back up to the top (I wonder if Deng would agree with this characterization of his life story).

That kind of hustle coexisted with an extreme level of Chinese patriotism and devotion to the state and party. At one point, then-paramount leader Jiang Zemin visits and Huawei tries to dazzle him with their corporate "oath":

Our feet stand on our forefathers’ dream of prosperity
earing the hope of national rejuvenation
We are an honest and progressing force
Aiming toward the advanced technology of the United States
Following Japan’s great management
According to the glorious tradition of the Chinese nation
Building our team at a high level with high quality
To better serve the motherland and the people.

Afterwards, "Jiang quipped that they should add a line to the oath: We must learn the meticulous hard-working spirit of the German people." Sure!

Ren is, in important ways, a deeply malevolent force in the world, given how deeply he's woven his company into the repression in Xinjiang, the CCP's nationwide CCTV surveillance system, the North Korean regime, etc etc. But my God is he a funny guy. He has Rust Cohle-style mysticisms falling out of him constantly:

“Sales work is special, complex, and noble,” he told them. “You need the intelligence of a scientist, the insight of a philosopher, the eloquence of an orator, the ambition of a social reformer, and the optimism and persistent spirit of a religious man.”

Also how funny is this to say when your daughter is CFO:

Ren said his successor must have vision, a deep understanding of customer needs, the ability to manage such a sprawling company, and the disposition not to rest on their laurels. “None of my family members have these abilities, and as a result, they will never enter the succession sequence,” he said.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company by Eva Dou is a sympathetic account to the Chinese tech titan. Dou is uninterested in a lot of details about Huawei's international connections, instead opting for a more intimate tail - first of Ren's quest to build a company, then its need to survive in a changing China, its rise to be a telecommunications giant, and its role at the epicenter of geopolitics. Wherever possible, a lot of the focus is on its leader and his daughter. In this, Dou is quite sympathetic to Huawei, and she does a lot to normalize the company, while celebrating its successes. I'm left a little torn, because I feel like a lot of the story is left out. Worth a read, but I think there needs to be some supplementary material added for more context.