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The Huawei Dossier: A Deep Investigation
A comprehensive, 12-chapter series examining Huawei as a geopolitical and technological phenomenon
```What This Is
Over the next several months, I'm going to publish a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of Huawei—not as a company, but as a phenomenon.
This will be 12 chapters examining Huawei from every angle: its origins, its technology, its business model, its relationship with the Chinese state, its global strategy, its survival under sanctions, and what it represents for the future of technology and geopolitics.
Not corporate PR. Not Western security establishment panic. Not superficial tech journalism. Actual research. Primary sources. Uncomfortable questions. Honest acknowledgment of what we don't know.
Why This Matters
Huawei is genuinely important—and genuinely misunderstood.
To some, it's a triumph of innovation and entrepreneurship. To others, it's a Trojan horse for Chinese state surveillance. To many in the Global South, it's a provider of affordable infrastructure that Western companies ignored. To Western intelligence agencies, it's an unacceptable security risk.
Everyone has an opinion. Almost no one has done the comprehensive research to support it.
The existing discourse is:
- Partisan: You're either pro-Huawei or anti-Huawei based on your geopolitical sympathies
- Superficial: Most coverage focuses on the latest sanction or product launch, not the deeper structural questions
- Siloed: Technology analysts don't understand the geopolitics; policy analysts don't understand the technology; business analysts don't understand the Chinese state system
This series aims to integrate all of those perspectives while remaining intellectually honest about uncertainties and competing interpretations.
The Core Questions We're Investigating
- What is Huawei really? Private company? State-owned enterprise? Something in between that doesn't fit Western categories?
- How did it actually rise? Was it genuinely entrepreneurial innovation or state-backed strategic operation disguised as private enterprise?
- What role did the PLA and Chinese government play? Is the relationship overstated by Western critics or understated by Huawei's defenders?
- How did Huawei survive sanctions that should have been fatal? What does that survival tell us about the true nature of the company?
- Is Huawei a security threat? Are the technical allegations credible or geopolitically motivated?
- What does Huawei's strategy reveal about China's long-term technological ambitions? Is this about selling equipment or architecting a parallel digital infrastructure for the 21st century?
- What's the template here? Is Huawei unique or a model being replicated across other Chinese tech companies?
The Approach: How We'll Do This
Methodology
1. Follow the Evidence, Not the Narrative
- We'll start with what's documented and verifiable
- We'll acknowledge gaps and uncertainties honestly
- We'll present competing interpretations when evidence supports multiple readings
- We'll update if we get things wrong
2. Use Primary Sources
- Chinese government policy documents (translated)
- Huawei's own statements and publications
- Court filings and investigations
- Academic research from multiple perspectives
- Technical analyses and security audits
- Financial data (where available)
3. Multi-Perspective Analysis
- How does China view Huawei's role?
- How do Western governments view the threat?
- How do Global South countries view the value proposition?
- How do Huawei employees and customers experience the company?
- What do independent technical experts say?
If Huawei innovated, we'll say so. If there's evidence of IP theft, we'll document it. If security concerns are technically valid, we'll explain them. If criticisms are politically motivated, we'll note that too. We won't apply double standards.
5. Make Complexity Accessible
- Technical depth without jargon walls
- Geopolitical analysis without academic gatekeeping
- Financial analysis in plain language
- Historical context that illuminates rather than buries
Transparency: The Human-AI Collaboration
I'm writing this series in collaboration with Claude AI. This isn't ghost-written by AI—it's genuine collaboration:
- I provide: Direction, research priorities, critical evaluation, synthesis, editorial judgment
- Claude provides: Research execution, structural organization, multi-source integration, tireless iteration
- Together: We push each other to go deeper, question assumptions, and find non-obvious connections
I'm making this transparent because:
- Honesty about process builds credibility
- This is an experiment in what human-AI collaboration can produce when focused on quality over clicks
- All sources will be cited—readers can verify everything
- If this methodology produces better research than traditional solo writing, that matters
What You Can Expect
The 12-Chapter Structure
PART I: FOUNDATION (Chapters 1-4)
- Chapter 1: Genesis—The origin story and what it hides
- Chapter 2: The PLA Connection—Military-commercial complex as incubator
- Chapter 3: From Copying to Creating—The technology transfer strategy
- Chapter 4: The Ownership Enigma—Who actually controls Huawei?
PART II: EXPANSION (Chapters 5-7)
- Chapter 5: The Rural-to-Global Strategy—How Huawei conquered markets others ignored
- Chapter 6: The Digital Silk Road—Mapping infrastructure as statecraft
- Chapter 7: The 5G Standards War—Patents, protocols, and power
PART III: CONFRONTATION (Chapters 8-10)
- Chapter 8: The Entity List—Anatomy of US containment strategy
- Chapter 9: Survival Mode—How Huawei adapted to sanctions
- Chapter 10: The Security Debate—Technical evidence vs. geopolitical paranoia
PART IV: IMPLICATIONS (Chapters 11-12)
- Chapter 11: The New Model—What Huawei reveals about digital-age statecraft
- Chapter 12: Three Futures—Where this goes from here
Publishing Schedule
- One chapter every 2-3 weeks
- Each chapter: 5,000-8,000 words
- Full series completion: ~6 months
- Updates and corrections as needed
What This Is NOT
- Not clickbait: Long, detailed, assumes intelligent readers
- Not propaganda: Not pro-China or anti-China—pro-understanding
- Not final: I'll update if evidence changes my understanding
- Not monetized: No paywalls, no ads—this is about the research
Why I'm Doing This
Simple: I'm interested in how humans and AI can collaborate to produce genuinely high-quality research on complex topics.
I don't care about traffic metrics. I don't care about going viral. I care about whether we can create something that's genuinely useful—that journalists, policymakers, students, and informed citizens can reference when they need to understand Huawei beyond soundbites.
If 100 people read this and come away with a more nuanced understanding of a significant geopolitical and technological phenomenon, that's a win.
If someone writing a thesis or article or policy brief finds this useful, that's the goal.
And if this demonstrates that human-AI collaboration can produce research that neither could create alone, that's valuable learning regardless of audience size.
How You Can Help
If you're reading this and you:
- Have expertise in Chinese tech policy, telecom infrastructure, corporate governance, or related fields
- Have access to sources I might not (Chinese-language documents, industry reports, etc.)
- Spot errors or omissions
- Have perspectives from countries that adopted or rejected Huawei
- Work or worked at Huawei or competitor companies
Please engage. Comment, email, send sources. This gets better with informed input.
A Note on Balance and Controversy
This investigation will make some people uncomfortable.
If you think Huawei is simply a private company being unfairly targeted, you'll encounter evidence that complicates that view.
If you think Huawei is simply a CCP front, you'll encounter evidence that complicates that view too.
I'm going to try to hold all of that complexity honestly rather than resolving it into a simple narrative.
If you want simple narratives, this isn't the series for you.
If you want to understand what's actually going on—with all the ambiguity and competing interpretations that implies—stick around.
What's Next
Chapter 1: Genesis publishes next week.
It examines Huawei's founding story—the official mythology and what that mythology obscures. We'll look at the "impossibility questions" (how did this actually get funded?), the PLA connections, the timing that seems too perfect, and what it might mean if Huawei was a state-directed operation from day one, designed for a 100-year infrastructure play.
It's going to challenge some assumptions. Including mine.
Let's see where the evidence leads.
