House of Huawei – Dou Eva (2025)

This book tells the story of the mysterious company that shook the world. On the coast of southern China, an eccentric entrepreneur spends three decades building an obscure telecommunications company into one of the world’s most powerful technological empires, largely unnoticed. That changes in December 2018, when the detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ female heir, triggers an international hostage standoff, intensifies the U.S.–China trade war and brings the company into the global spotlight. Washington Post technology reporter Eva Dou portrays Huawei’s reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei and traces how he built a sprawling corporate empire whose rise Western policymakers have increasingly sought to halt. The book examines the global web of power, money, influence, surveillance, bloodshed and national glory that Huawei helped create and that has also ensnared it. Drawing on extensive interviews and archival research, it presents a story of familial and political intrigue, offers a new perspective on China’s rise from a third-world country to a rival of the United States, and illuminates the security concerns occupying world leaders.