Culture | Spies in disguise?

Now it’s all about TikTok. But Huawei led the way

The Chinese telecoms firm was the first to raise America’s hackles

People walk in the foreground holding phones. A Huawei Technologies Co. store in Shanghai, China.
Photograph: Getty Images
|SHANGHAI

It is one of the world’s most controversial companies, supplying much of the developing world with vital telecoms kit. American officials swear it is a spying tool for China’s Communist Party. It has been accused of all manner of infractions, including intellectual-property theft, receiving lavish state subsidies that allow it to undercut rivals on price and equipping the Chinese government with the most advanced tools for surveillance and digital oppression of its own citizens.

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