Isolation of a Global Giant Huawei was founded in 1951' as a Chinese provider ofcomrnunications technology and smart devices. The company has approximately 194.000 employees and serves more than 3 billion people around the world Huawei surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue in 2018. powered by its sales of more than 200 million smartphones that year. It holds the titles of the world's largest seller of telecommunications equipment and the secondslargest smartphone makerg The company also boasts that almost half of Fortune 100 companies have chosen Huawei "as their partner for digital transformation '- Lately. however. Huawei is losing partners. entire countries in fact. In 2018 alone. the United States. United Kingdom. Australia. and New Zealand all banned the use of Huawei-s iG cellular technology. France and Germany were discussing similar bans. and authorities in Canada actually arrested Huawei's CTO on a US. warrant The US. also banned shipments of parts or components to Huawei in May 2019. resulting in the inability of companies like Qualcornm and Intel to export chips. Although this ban has been lifted. Huawei found other suppliers and no longer needs components from US. firmsg These setbacks have stunted Huawei's global expansion and isolated it to the Chinese market. H1."A\"'E]'S GLOBAL AMBITIONS Huawei has had explosive growth in China. The company's revenue increased from around 520 billion in 2009 to over $100 billion in 2013. and it makes more Page l?5phones than Apple Huawei's growth "has come against the backdrop ofChinas continued rise . . providing the rm with a huge base upon which to build its initial market.\" the BBC reported The Chinese market is quite saturated though. 131 and if Huawei wants to grow. it needs to expand to new markets. According to one business analyst. Europe would be the place for Huawei to launch its new products. Huawei's international expansion has hit a snag. Critics accuse it ofbeing too cozy with the Chinese goveinment. which has caused a backlash against both its communications technology and smartphone business 132 A \"'ORLD INC HING TO'VARI) 5G At the heart ofHuawei's international expansion woes is 5G technology. Let's first discuss this new wave of communications. Almost all cellular technology in the US. has been based on 4G technology (the \""G stands for generation) since 2010. Each cellular generation has introduced greater data transmission speed. with 56- being the fastest and most responsive currently in the market. Faster transmission and responsiveness allow you to stream Xetflix movies more quickly. see high-resolution Ring doorbell surveillance videos. and even do virtual reality physical therapy. This technology also 133 makes other innovations. such as driverless cars. possible Major C '3. carriers introduced 5G in late 2018 and continue to expand it across the countiy. starting with highly populated cities. The speed and functionality of 5G technology also bring about security conceins in a globalized world For example. critical Functions and peisonal data can be hacked utilizmg "backdoorsl' on a 56 platform. Some worry these backdoors may actually be exploited not just by private criminals. but also by hostile governments that control 3G developer A)" ARM OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT? Huawei maintains it is a private company solely owned by its employees. In fact. the English version of the company's website specically mentions: \"No government agency or outside organization holds shares in Huawei Not so fast. say the United States and seveial other countries. They claim that vague Chinese intelligence laws could force Huawei to hand over data to the Chinese government. not only data from Chinese smartphone users: but also data from any Huawei product user in the world. Moreover. Chinese regulations require that private companies establish Chinese Communist Party branches within them and accept state-backed investment.E As a result. the [5.8. government has said that Americans should not use imported Huawei phones. and federal government agenCies are banned 13' from buying them. Other countries. including the United Kingdom. Xew Zealand. and Australia. have barred the company's equipment from their 5G mobile networks. The United States and Canada have also gone after Huawei for other trade-related issues, including violations of sanctions against Iran. On December 1, 2018, Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was detained and charged in Canada by both American and Canadian authorities for allegedly covering up the organization's Iranian sanctions evasion scheme. The Chinese government calls the charges an attempt to stop Huawei's advancement across the globe. 138 Not all countries have joined the anti-Huawei bandwagon. In 2019, China's fellow BRICS nation, Russia, agreed to incorporate Huawei equipment in its SG telecommunications platform.' Bloomberg reports that Brazil is considering Huawei for its national telecommunications needs as well. This essentially pits some of the largest emerging economies against North American and European nations. The Russians also are interested in a joint venture with Huawei to produce chips and software. The joint venture would include participation by the Russian government, which bolsters Western nations claims that Huawei and its partners are government entities pretending to be commercial ones, according to Forbes. 141 THE COST OF GLOBALIZATION BRICS countries are not the only ones facilitating Huawei's international expansion. U.S. allies, such as France and Germany, have yet to ban Huawei's participation in 3G development, but the reason isn't trust in the company's independence. In fact, the European Union issued an advisory report in October 2019 warning of "uncontrolled software updates, manipulation of functionalities, inclusion of functions to bypass audit mechanisms, [and] backdoors" by companies such as Huawei. The hesitation seems to be related to globalization and the costs of moving away from Huawei's technology. For example, German telecommunications operators, such as Deutsche Telekom, have already invested heavily in Huawei's technology. Chinese technology is cheaper to secure, due to a globalized environment. What isn't cheap is divesting from this technology. In fact, the American Enterprise Institute estimates that it will cost billions for the Europeans to move away from Huawei. 14