The Concerns: Should the West Worry about Chinese Investment?

Abstract

Charles Ding and Zhu Jingyun stare at each other across the room as they await the start of Congressional hearings on September 13, 2012. It’s a cool autumn morning on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, and the two business executives wonder why the United States House Intelligence Committee selected their firms as targets of an extensive investigation. Ding is a Senior Vice President and the chief US representative for Huawei, a telecommunications company with operations around the world worth an estimated $35 billion in 2013.¹ Two years earlier, Ding had moved his family to Bethesda, Maryland, after nearly 17 years with the firm in China. Zhu leads the North American and European operations for ZTE, a $13 billion² Chinese competitor of Huawei. The United States House Intelligence Committee had seemingly grouped Huawei and ZTE together as part of the investigation because both companies operate in the telecommunications industry, originate from China, and are expanding rapidly in overseas markets in the developed and developing world.