COLUMNS

Huawei's Success Puts It in Washington's Sights

undefined and Senior Global Analyst at RANE
Matthew Bey
Senior Global Analyst at RANE, Stratfor

Jun 28, 2018 | 19:11 GMT

Conference attendees walk past a booth for Chinese telecommunications company at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei has not drawn the concern in Europe that it has in the United States.

Huawei's achievements make it a target of Washington as the United States seeks to hinder China's rise a technology power.

(PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Washington's wariness about Huawei will prevent the Chinese company from making inroads in the United States, but it will continue to expand elsewhere, including Europe.
  • Despite pressure applied by Washington on U.S. companies to steer clear of Huawei, it will remain an important partner for giants like Google.
  • If the United States applies pressure tactics against Huawei, Beijing could interpret the move as an attack against itself.

Few companies play such an outsized role in geopolitics as Huawei, which has become a global leader in the development of several key technologies, including 5G telecommunications infrastructure. Despite more than a decade worth of efforts, however, Huawei has struggled to break into the U.S. market in the face of near-constant resistance. Allegations that the company has stolen U.S. technology have combined with suspicions over its ambiguous ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to drive bipartisan political opposition to its U.S. ambitions. The unwanted attention from Washington, however, will do little to hinder Huawei’s global rise -- or reduce its importance to Beijing....

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