Huawei’s relationship with Chinese military and government are making Indians worried. They feel that their strategic telecom infrastructure might be at risk. Good time for Cisco to parachute 100 sales people. This could actually be a bigger problem for Huawei going forward. India is one of the big markets for the telecom equipment maker. I wonder when this fear spreads to other countries and a Huawei backlash starts to gather momentum. So far the company has coasted because of cheap gear which fits in with limited budgets of emerging economy telecoms. via
Om,
A bit off topic but this type of response seems to be a recurring theme lately. For Huawei, all the recent anti-China backlash (i.e. Haier and Maytag, CNOOC and Unocal) sure can’t help their efforts either here or in other countries.
At a simplistic level, it’s a bit concerning that Chinese investment in US companies is cosidered a risk, while major U.S. banks (Merrill, Goldman, BofA) investing in state-run Chinese banks is fine (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/business/worldbusiness/19yuan.html). I know it’s a more complex issue than my little mind can comprehend but can’t we all just be friends….
john,
you are dead on. It’s all cool when every private equity shop is setting up shop in China – the next big consumer market, but the minute the chinese EVEN think about acquiring US assets – all of a sudden it’s china – the biggest communist country in the world.
mrj