A lot has been said and written about the risks of the Chinese telecommunications and surveillance company Huawei. This overview aims to provided a selection of credible articles. It separates direct accusations of espionage for the benefit of the Chinese state from articles on broader risks, company behaviour, and counter actions.
State espionage
Aglionby, John, Emily Feng, and Yuan Yang. 2018, January 29. ‘African Union Accuses China of Hacking Headquarters’. Financial Times.
Fisher, Lucy and Michael Evans. 2019, April 20. ‘CIA warning over Huawei Telecoms giant accused of being funded by Chinese state security’. The Times.
Joye, Christopher. 2013, July 19. ‘Huawei Spies for China, Says Ex-CIA Head’. Australian Financial Review.
Kadiri, Ghalia, and Joan Tilouine. 2018, January 26. ‘A Addis-Abeba, le siège de l’Union africaine espionné par Pékin’ [In Addis-Abeba, the seta of the African Union spied upon by Beijing]. Le Monde.
Mendick, Robert. 2019, July 5. ‘Huawei Staff CVs Reveal Alleged Links to Chinese Intelligence Agencies’. The Telegraph.
Robertson, Jordan and Jamie Tarabay. 2021, December 16. ‘Chinese Spies Accused of Using Huawei in Secret Australia Telecom Hack’. Bloomberg.
Rosenbach, Marcel and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt. 2019, July 26. ‘German Cybersecurity Chief: Threats Posed by Huawei Are Manageable’. Der Spiegel.
Cybersecurity
Lepido, Daniele. 2019, April 30. ‘Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment’. Bloomberg.
Lillis, Katie Bo. 2022, July 25. ‘CNN Exclusive: FBI Investigation determined Chinese-Made Huawei Equipment Could Disrupt US Nuclear Arsenal Communications’. CNN.
Lomas, Natasha. 2019, March 28. ‘UK report blasts Huawei for network security incompetence’. TechCrunch.
Modderkolk, Huib. 2021, March 29. ‘Huawei had onbeperkt toegang tot gegevens miljoenen Telfort-klanten’ [Huawei had unlimited access to data of millions of Telfort customers]. de Volkskrant
Modderkolk, Huib. 2021, April 17. ‘Huawei kon alle gesprekken van mobiele KPN-klanten afluisteren, inclusief die van politici’ [Huawei could eavesdrop on all calls of KPN mobile customers, including those of politicians]. de Volkskrant.
Pancevski, Bojan. 2020, February 12. ‘U.S. Officials Say Huawei Can Covertly Access Telecom Networks’. The Wall Street Journal.
Strumpf, Dan. 2021, August 14. ‘Huawei Accused in Suit of Installing Data “Back Door” in Pakistan Project’. The Wall Street Journal.
Economic security
Bases, Daniel. 2013, May 18. ‘Exclusive: EU cites Chinese telecoms Huawei and ZTE for trade violations’. Reuters.
Elstrom, Peter, and Allen Wan. 2023, December 1. ‘China Secretly Transforms Huawei Into Most Powerful Chip War Weapon’. Bloomberg.
Hmaidi, Antonia. 2024, April. Huawei Is Quietly Dominating China’s Semiconductor Supply Chain. UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and MERICS.
Pfahler, Lennart, and John Sakellariadis. 2023, October 9. ‘Milliardengeschäft des Tech-Konzerns: Der Kampf um Huawei’ [The tech group’s billion-dollar business: The battle for Huawei]. Welt am Sonntag.
Yang Zeyi. 2025, July 17. ‘Some Cities in China Are Advertising Exclusive Subsidies for Huawei-Powered Cars’. Wired.
Yap, Chuin-Wei. 2019, December 25. ‘State Support Helped Fuel Huawei’s Global Rise’. The Wall Street Journal.
Company behaviour
Bensoussan, David, and Antoine Izambard. 2024, October 28. ‘La justice enquête sur les liens entre Jean-Louis Borloo et Huawei’ [Justice investigates links between Jean-Louis Borloo and Huawei]. Challenges.
Chandler, Mark. 2012, October 11. ‘Huawei and Cisco’s Source Code: Correcting the Record’. Cisco.
Dou, Eva. 2021, December 14. ‘Documents Link Huawei to China’s Surveillance Programs’. The Washington Post.
Fanta, Alexander, Simon van Dorpe, and Lisanne van Vucht. 2025, March 13. ‘How Huawei’s Lobbying Campaign in Europe Went Rogue’. Follow the Money.
Fanta, Alexander, and Simon van Dorpe. 2025, March 24. ‘Huawei’s EU Bribery Scheme Exposed: Tens of Thousands of Euros Allegedly Paid to MEPs’. Follow the Money.
Guibert, Nathalie. 2022, July 8. ‘Huawei withdraws defamation suit against a French researcher’. Le Monde.
Harwell, Drew and Eva Dou. 2020, December 8. ‘Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police, report says’. The Washington Post.
Hijink, Marc. 2023 October 23. ‘Opgestapte ASML-medewerker ging naar Huawei – en nam bedrijfsgeheimen mee’ [Resigned ASML employee went to Huawei – and took trade secrets]. NRC.
Laufer, Daniel, and Alexander Fanta. 2021, January 13. ‘“Wolf Culture”: How Huawei Controls Its Employees in Europe’. Netzpolitik.org.
Modderkolk, Huib. 2021, March 21. ‘Massaal fake-accounts ingezet om stemming over Huawei te beïnvloeden’ [Fake accounts deployed en masse to influence mood on Huawei]. de Volkskrant.
O’Keeffe, Kate. 2019, May 23. ‘Huawei Executive Accused by U.S. Startup of Involvement in Trade-Secrets Theft’. The Wall Street Journal.
Orlowski, Andrew. 2017, May 19. ‘Huawei spied, US federal jury finds’. The Register.
Parkinson, Joe, Nicholas Bariyo, and Josh Chin. 2019, August 15. ‘Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents’. The Wall Street Journal.
Plucinska, Joanna, Karol Witenberg, and Jack Stubbs. 2019, January 11. ‘Poland arrests Huawei employee, Polish man on spying allegations’. Reuters.
Robertson, Jordan, and Drake Bennett. 2023, June 15. ‘How Huawei Got Caught Spying and Lost a $200 Million 5G Contract’. Bloomberg.
Shi Jiangtao. 2019, December 15. ‘Chinese ambassador accused of threatening German car industry if Huawei is frozen out’. South China Morning Post.
de Souza Soares, Philipp Alvares, Moritz Kock, and Annett Meiritz. 2023, March 28. ‘Pakt mit Huawei: Deutsche Telekom sicherte sich gegen US-Sanktionen ab’ [Pact with Huawei: Deutsche Telekom protects itself against US sanctions]. Handelsblatt.
Stecklow, Steve and Babak Dehghanpisheh. 2020, July 14. ‘Exclusive: Huawei hid business operation in Iran after Reuters reported links to CFO’. Reuters.
Counter actions
Der Spiegel. 2014, March 22. ‘Targeting Huawei: NSA Spied on Chinese Government and Networking Firm’.
Jiang, Sijia. 2019, March 28. ‘Exclusive: Huawei reviewing FedEx relationship, says packages “diverted”’. Reuters.
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