Globalization is an economic model built on trust, where businesses assume that geopolitical tensions can be overcome by mutual self-interest. But the case of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company that was briefly the world’s largest seller of smartphones, demonstrates the limits of that ideal.
Huawei has suffered a crisis of trust. Since 2019, the U.S. has accused the company of spying for Beijing and lobbied its allies to bar the telecom equipment manufacturer from helping build out their national 5G infrastructure.
