Do Your Own Research: The Chinese Company That Terrifies the West w/ Eva Dou

Huawei makes the pipes and cables that power the Chinese internet. Its global reach has made China into a superpower.

Huawei is often accused of spying for China. But how was the US so sure that Huawei’s technology could be used for spying? Because the US had already hacked Huawei’s technology and were using it to spy themselves.

That’s not even the strangest episode in the company’s history. Its installations in Iraq were bombed by the UK and US before 9/11. In 2018, its infrastructure allegedly pinged back the secrets of the Africa Union to China overnight. And it now stands accused of doing business in Iran.

Eva Dou is the author of the deeply researched House of Huawei: The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company.

She spoke to Richard Hames about the geopolitics of telecommunications, how Huawei made China into a global superpower, and whether or not Huawei is, in fact, a wing of the Chinese state.

And we’ll be making our map of everything that has ever mattered and ever will: this new edition focused on China, available here: novaramedia.com/dyor

0:00 Intro

3:57 Huawei’s Current Legal Battle

14:14 Huawei & Espionage

24:34 Huawei in Africa and Iraq

33:07 The Great Firewall and Tech Rivalry

46:40 The Mysterious CEO: Ren Zhengfei and Shenzhen