The untold story of the mysterious company that shook the world.
On the coast of southern China, an eccentric entrepreneur spent three decades steadily building an obscure telecom company into one of the world’s most powerful technological empires with hardly anyone noticing. This all changed in December 2018, when the detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ female scion, sparked an international hostage standoff, poured fuel on the US-China trade war, and suddenly thrust the mysterious company into the global spotlight.
In House of Huawei, Washington Post technology reporter Eva Dou pieces together a remarkable portrait of Huawei’s reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, and how he built a sprawling corporate empire—one whose rise Western policymakers have become increasingly obsessed with halting. Based on wide-ranging interviews and painstaking archival research, House of Huawei dissects the global web of power, money, influence, surveillance, bloodshed, and national glory that Huawei helped to build—and that has also ensnared it.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HOUSE OF HUAWEI
“In House of Huawei, Eva Dou uncovers how Huawei has become China’s most successful tech company—and a lightning rod for geopolitical competition. Based on unique interviews and deep research into the company’s history, House of Huawei provides the most in-depth account of Huawei’s rise and its complex and controversial connections to China’s security state. House of Huawei is essential reading for understanding China’s tech sector and the China-US tech competition.” —Chris Miller, author of Chip War
“A groundbreaking work on China’s most important company. More than online shopping or video apps, the Communist Party is obsessed with telecommunications networks, semiconductors, and surveillance systems. At last we have a book that unveils Huawei’s deepest mysteries.” —Dan Wang, fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center
“Eva Dou’s House of Huawei is an extraordinary feat of both reporting and historical research, providing an unprecedented look inside one of the world’s most important companies. Huawei is now a central player in the technological contest between the US and China, and this book is a fascinating account of how it became so powerful—and so controversial.” —Matthew Campbell, co-author of Dead in the Water
“A revelatory deep dive into the company that sparked the US-China battle for technological supremacy. Vividly written, exhaustively researched, and packed with riveting inside-the-room details, House of Huawei is the most comprehensive account yet of China’s leading tech giant. An indispensable resource for understanding Chinese state capitalism and how it fuels geopolitical competition.” —Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University and author of Chokepoints
“A gripping read charting the ascent of Huawei, China’s tech powerhouse. Meticulously reported, Eva Dou’s narrative combines geopolitics, spying, and technological innovation with the human story of a former People’s Liberation Army engineer who became a global business titan.” —Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times
“In House of Huawei, journalist Eva Dou has written a fascinating and sweeping history of the company and the key individuals behind the firm’s success. Unlike most contemporary accounts of the company and its relationship to the Chinese government, [Dou’s narrative draws] out the contradictions in Huawei’s status as a reluctant national champion that founder Ren Zhengfei once complained was not trusted by either the Chinese or the US government. Dou provides a particularly rich story fabric that captures the company’s complex evolution over several decades as it has become the poster child of US-China technology competition. Required reading for any serious student of US-China relations and the race to dominate the technologies of the future. A superb and nuanced summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly that characterizes the firm’s history, and shows how the sausage was made with unflagging balance and fairness.” —Paul Triolo, partner for China and technology policy lead at Albright Stonebridge Group
“A timely, clear, and undeniably worrying account.” – Kirkus
Eva Dou is The Washington Post's China business and economy correspondent. A Detroit native, she previously spent seven years reporting on politics and technology for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing and Taipei, Taiwan. She is currently based in Washington D.C.
View titles by Eva Dou
The untold story of the mysterious company that shook the world.
On the coast of southern China, an eccentric entrepreneur spent three decades steadily building an obscure telecom company into one of the world’s most powerful technological empires with hardly anyone noticing. This all changed in December 2018, when the detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ female scion, sparked an international hostage standoff, poured fuel on the US-China trade war, and suddenly thrust the mysterious company into the global spotlight.
In House of Huawei, Washington Post technology reporter Eva Dou pieces together a remarkable portrait of Huawei’s reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, and how he built a sprawling corporate empire—one whose rise Western policymakers have become increasingly obsessed with halting. Based on wide-ranging interviews and painstaking archival research, House of Huawei dissects the global web of power, money, influence, surveillance, bloodshed, and national glory that Huawei helped to build—and that has also ensnared it.
Praise
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HOUSE OF HUAWEI
“In House of Huawei, Eva Dou uncovers how Huawei has become China’s most successful tech company—and a lightning rod for geopolitical competition. Based on unique interviews and deep research into the company’s history, House of Huawei provides the most in-depth account of Huawei’s rise and its complex and controversial connections to China’s security state. House of Huawei is essential reading for understanding China’s tech sector and the China-US tech competition.” —Chris Miller, author of Chip War
“A groundbreaking work on China’s most important company. More than online shopping or video apps, the Communist Party is obsessed with telecommunications networks, semiconductors, and surveillance systems. At last we have a book that unveils Huawei’s deepest mysteries.” —Dan Wang, fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center
“Eva Dou’s House of Huawei is an extraordinary feat of both reporting and historical research, providing an unprecedented look inside one of the world’s most important companies. Huawei is now a central player in the technological contest between the US and China, and this book is a fascinating account of how it became so powerful—and so controversial.” —Matthew Campbell, co-author of Dead in the Water
“A revelatory deep dive into the company that sparked the US-China battle for technological supremacy. Vividly written, exhaustively researched, and packed with riveting inside-the-room details, House of Huawei is the most comprehensive account yet of China’s leading tech giant. An indispensable resource for understanding Chinese state capitalism and how it fuels geopolitical competition.” —Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University and author of Chokepoints
“A gripping read charting the ascent of Huawei, China’s tech powerhouse. Meticulously reported, Eva Dou’s narrative combines geopolitics, spying, and technological innovation with the human story of a former People’s Liberation Army engineer who became a global business titan.” —Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times
“In House of Huawei, journalist Eva Dou has written a fascinating and sweeping history of the company and the key individuals behind the firm’s success. Unlike most contemporary accounts of the company and its relationship to the Chinese government, [Dou’s narrative draws] out the contradictions in Huawei’s status as a reluctant national champion that founder Ren Zhengfei once complained was not trusted by either the Chinese or the US government. Dou provides a particularly rich story fabric that captures the company’s complex evolution over several decades as it has become the poster child of US-China technology competition. Required reading for any serious student of US-China relations and the race to dominate the technologies of the future. A superb and nuanced summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly that characterizes the firm’s history, and shows how the sausage was made with unflagging balance and fairness.” —Paul Triolo, partner for China and technology policy lead at Albright Stonebridge Group
“A timely, clear, and undeniably worrying account.” – Kirkus
Eva Dou is The Washington Post's China business and economy correspondent. A Detroit native, she previously spent seven years reporting on politics and technology for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing and Taipei, Taiwan. She is currently based in Washington D.C.
View titles by Eva Dou
