Aug 14, 2019 08:00:00

Who is running Huawei?

Huawei is one of the world's leading high-tech companies in the midst of trade friction called the “

US-China Technology Cold War ”, but little is known about it. Meanwhile, Christopher Bolding, who is familiar with the Chinese economy and financial system, and Donald Clark, a law professor who specializes in Chinese law , are approaching the mystery of who is driving Huawei.

Who Owns Huawei? By Christopher Balding, Donald C. Clarke :: SSRN
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm

Who Owns Huawei? The Company Tried to Explain. It Got Complicated.- The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/technology/who-owns-huawei.html

Huawei owns itself with ballsy 'who owns us' Twitter poll
https://thenextweb.com/asia/2019/08/06/huawei-owns-itself-with-ballsy-who-owns-us-twitter-poll/

Huawei took a questionnaire about who they think the owner of Huawei with the hashtag “#WhoRunsHuawei” (who is running Huawei) on their official Twitter account. The result is that 42% of the responses are “owned by the (Chinese) government”.

Who do you think owns Huawei? #WhoRunsHuawei

— Huawei (@Huawei) August 2, 2019

Huawei has opened a website called “ Huawei Facts (Huawei's truth)” and released various data to clear the doubts. The page that mentions Huawei owners said, “Huawei is not a government or other company controlled by a third party. Huawei has been owned and operated by its employees since its inception. Is written.

However, Mr. Boulding et al. Dismissed these explanations as 'made myths'. The basis for this is the contradiction that the labor union is not organized by workers, despite the fact that “the trade union dominates the enterprise in China”.

Huawei is not listed, Huawei Group's shares are all held by Huawei Holding, a holding company , and Huawei Technologies, which has Huawei's substantial business, is a subsidiary of Huawei Holding. The founder, Ren Zhengfei , owns 1.14% of Huawei Holding's shares, and the remaining 98.86% is owned by an organization called Huawei Holding TUC.

As you can see from the name Huawei Holding TUC, Huawei Holding shares are owned by Huawei Holding trade unions, not Huawei Technologies, which has many employees. There is also a labor union at Huawei Technologies, but its activities are related to the management of the company at the most, such as donating to employees with health problems and managing club activities after work hours. He has no real power.

In addition, the concept of stock itself is clearly different from that of ordinary corporations. General shares have important

voting rights for shareholders to participate in corporate management, but Huawei shares are only `` written contracts '' to distribute profits only . For this reason, Huawei shares are called “virtual shares” or “restricted phantom stocks ”.

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Mr. Boulding also mentions the position of trade unions in China. China's trade unions are headed by the China National Industrial Association (ACFTU), the only official trade union union, but the ACFTU is legally stipulated as an organization returning to the state. It is part of the Communist Party. From this, Mr. Boulding says, “Huawei can be regarded as a de facto state-owned enterprise”.

“After all, who specifically owns Huawei,” Bolding replied, “Except for Ren Zhengfei, whose name is known, it ’s completely unknown”. On the other hand, he said that “whoever owns Huawei is not at least an employee working in Huawei,” Huawei explained that the explanation was different.