Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Dan’s Biz Bookshelf ‘House of Huawei'

Eva Dou’s House of Huawei is one of the most gripping business books I’ve read in years, and believe me, I’ve read my fair share. This is not just another corporate biography. It’s a geopolitical thriller, except every word is true. People have painted the Chinese tech giant Huawei as a villain, a threat, and an enigma in equal measure. However, Dou cuts through the noise and delivers something few Western reporters have managed: a fair, balanced, and thoroughly researched look at the company everyone in tech has an opinion about, but few understand.

Dou takes us inside the beast: Huawei’s roots in the back alleys of Shenzhen, its obsessive engineering culture, and its founder Ren Zhengfei’s iron grip. She tracks how a scrappy telecom reseller became a global titan with 200,000 employees and ambitions to knock Apple off its smartphone pedestal.

For a while, it was well on its way. While Silicon Valley was busy patting itself on the back, Huawei was shipping phones that, according to some tests, beat iPhones on camera quality, battery life, and hardware-software integration. The company’s in-house Kirin chips were a stroke of genius with vertical integration that would make even Apple CEO Tim Cook sweat.

But here’s where it gets spicy. The U.S. didn’t like Huawei’s rise. Maybe it was the company’s alleged ties to the Chinese military, its 5G dominance, or its politics. Whatever the reason, Washington created sanctions, blacklists, and placed pressure on allies, a full-blown crusade to kneecap Huawei’s tech supply lines, finally cutting off Huawei’s access to Google, TSMC, and every chip-making lifeline. That was supposed to be the knockout blow. But Huawei didn’t fold. It adapted, designing its own OS, Harmony, developed chips in-house, doubled down on R&D, hoarded parts, and kept building.

What I admire most about this book is Dou’s even-handedness. She doesn’t shy away from the tough material: Huawei’s shadowy ownership, the Meng Wanzhou arrest, and the swirling allegations. Nor does she let headlines replace facts, providing the full picture of a company that’s secretive and sophisticated, ambitious and besieged, flawed and resilient.

This book is a reminder that global tech is no longer simply about innovation; it’s about power. Chips are now chess pieces. Smartphones are battlegrounds, and Huawei is playing at a level most companies can’t even see.

The part that hit me hardest? When Dou chronicles Huawei’s comeback story. Despite being cut off from the world’s top fabs, it managed, against all odds, to launch a 5G phone with a chip made in China. You have to admire that.

Look, I don’t care which flag you salute. You’ve got to respect the engineering, determination, and refusal to die. You may not like Huawei, but after reading this book, you’ll understand it, and that’s more than I can say for most of the political noise out there.

Tech professionals, supply chain experts, manufacturers, or anyone interested in knowing where the world is heading should read House of Huawei. It highlights a new kind of competition, where your biggest rival isn’t across the street, it’s across the ocean.

Read this book. It’s the story of the new world we’re all building brick by digital brick.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.

Title: House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company
Author: Eva Dou
Copyright: 2025 Portfolio
Pages: 448
Price: $18.77