The Huawei Model

With the rise of China’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector, a number of Chinese high-tech firms are approaching transnational stages and shifting the center of gravity in global ICT markets. In the meantime, China’s digital economy has raised the debate with regard to the nature and direction of its developmental model. This book investigates Huawei Technologies—China’s most competitive high-tech company—as a microcosm of the rise of China’s corporate power and its evolving digital economy. Yun Wen first traces Huawei’s history against the backdrop of China’s ICT development and its outward expansion in global markets. Focusing on Huawei’s research and development strategies, she then delineates Huawei’s path to its cutting-edge technology and innovation leadership. Huawei’s distinct experience in the design of its ownership structure and labor practices is also examined in the book. By examining how Huawei’s growth intertwined with the trajectory of China’s ICT development and how it responded to various forces of corporate China’s globalization, this book sheds light on distinguishing features of the “Huawei model” and the geopolitical economic implications of China’s corporate globalization. It argues that the core of China’s pathbreaking model lies in local alternatives and indigenous agencies that have the ability to insist on a self-reliant, open-minded, and innovation-oriented developmental strategy.