Today's Reading
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This is a work of journalism, which means that nothing is invented or fictionalized. Much of the dialogue and many of the details are drawn from official meeting minutes, speech transcripts, video recordings, government reports, and other contemporaneous records. Some information is also derived from the recollections of firsthand participants. Details on sources can be found in the endnotes.
The goal of this project was to chronicle the historic path of the most successful company in China's modern history, Huawei Technologies, in the belief that it could contribute to the conversation about how we arrived at this current moment in history—and what comes next.
This is an independent project, which means it does not have the endorsement of, and was not commissioned by, Huawei, any other tech company, or any government. Penguin's Portfolio imprint was the sole source of funding. The Washington Post supported the endeavor through a book leave. This book also draws on interviews and research I did as a reporter for The Post and The Wall Street Journal.
The reconstruction of this narrative was made possible through the generous time and insights of many industry executives, policymakers, and scholars of China. I have tried to faithfully reflect the diversity of their perspectives in these pages. Any errors, misunderstandings, or oversights are solely my own. I hope that readers will enjoy their foray into the astonishing world of telecommunications as much as I did mine.
INTRODUCTION
The woman's flight from Hong Kong arrived in Vancouver on December 1, 2018, at 11:10 a.m., a few minutes ahead of schedule. Dressed comfortably in a dark hooded tracksuit and sneakers, her shiny black hair hanging loose around her shoulders, she was planning a quick stop at one of her family homes, then heading on to Buenos Aires. As it happened, the most powerful men and women in the world were gathering just then in the Argentine capital for the G20 summit. It was—by her account—a coincidence.
As she stepped off the Cathay Pacific flight at the Vancouver International Airport, something was not quite right. An officer was checking passports as the passengers emerged from the jetway at gate 65. When she reached him, she showed him her Hong Kong passport, a fairly new one, her seventh in eleven years. The officer called over a colleague, who asked her to hand over her mobile phones. Her lawyers would later say she could have resisted. But she was jet-lagged and caught off guard, so it didn't occur to her to resist. She handed over her iPhone and a red-cased smartphone made by her father's company. The officers put them into a thick bag designed to block cell-phone signals and make it difficult for anyone to wipe them remotely.
After following her to baggage claim, the two officers rifled through her luggage, pulling out more electronics: a pink MacBook, a rose-gold iPad, a 256-gigabyte USB drive. One of them asked her for the phones' passwords and scribbled the numbers on a loose sheet of paper. The questioning continued. One hour passed, then two. Finally, three hours after she'd gotten off the plane, a third man appeared and told her she was under arrest. She was facing charges of fraud in the United States.
"You're saying you're going to arrest me?"
"Right."
"And then send me to the United States?"
"Right."
It was now undeniable that this was not a random airport check. This was a highly planned operation. As the officer explained that they were going to book her into jail and fingerprint her, he advised Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, also known as Cathy Meng, also known as Sabrina Meng, to get a lawyer.
* * *
Huawei had been on Washington's radar for some time. The company had emerged as China's leading high-tech firm, trouncing its Western rivals in bids for major contracts on the strength of its sales team's ferocious "wolf culture." Huawei was now number one in the lucrative trade of building the "pipes" that made up the world's phone and internet networks. Its pockets seemed endlessly deep, as it scooped up top engineers from across the globe.
...
