America hasn't stopped Huawei's rise, Plus Trump’s $1.5M port fee plan aims to sink Chinese shipping -- China Boss News 3.21.25

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What happened?

German automaker BMW just handed Huawei the keys to the software running its electric vehicles and maybe a lot more.

Last week, the German automaker announced a "strategic partnership" to roll out HiCar—a state-approved Smart Connect system—in its China-made vehicles by 2026.

In a glowing corporate blog post, BMW framed the deal as a "significant step" in its localization strategy, practically beaming over its deepening ties with China's Western-sanctioned tech ecosystem.

The post didn't just announce the deal—it gushed over Huawei, stuffing in just the right amount of Party-approved buzzwords like "digital transformation" and "innovation" to keep the censors happy.

And in what can only be described as corporate spin at its finest, Sean Green, BMW's China boss, took the propaganda further, borrowing a phrase lately reserved for Trump's second term, he declared:

"BMW is leveraging its system integration expertise to fuse cutting-edge technologies and advance local partnerships into a transformative 2.0 phase."

Coincidence? About as much as Huawei being a "private" company.

Why it matters.

Data arms race

At first glance, you might think BMW's new "strategic partnership" with Huawei is just about selling cars in China.

But that assumption—if you can get past the PR fluff, and I, as you can clearly see, cannot 😏—is deeply flawed.

Huawei isn't just some hometown hero. It's already taken the wheel in local mobile, semiconductors, and smart car tech sectors; it's multinational and monopolistic, and Ren Zhengfei will be damned if he's stopping there.

A tech nationalism icon, Ren is often portrayed in the Party-state narrative as the embodiment of China’s tech defiance, and he still casts a long shadow over the company’s culture, direction, and long-term vision.

BMW practically spelled Ren’s ambitions out in its statement. According to Reuters:

"BMW is teaming up with Huawei to develop smart applications based on the Harmony operating system for drivers of its vehicles using the tech conglomerate's devices in China, according to a company statement.

The German automaker is working with its suppliers to achieve more 'cross-cycle' cooperation and 'promote the deep integration of local Chinese (partners) into BMW's global innovation system,' the statement added."

Translation? The deal isn't just a local "win-win" (Green isn't the only one fluent in party speak. 😉). It's about BMW handing Huawei the keys to something much bigger—global digital dominance and, more likely, our data.

Same old story of companies getting too much of your personal information, right?

Not exactly. The critical difference is that today's real currency of power is data, and BigData is the new superpower fully committed to using and abusing you, the product.

After all, the more you know about someone, the easier it is to control them, whether nudging them toward a purchase, shaping their political beliefs, or tracking dissidents in real time.

That’s why governments, corporations, and tech giants are all in on the new digital arms race to build the biggest, smartest data ecosystems.

They're on an endless quest to absorb more data than anyone else so they can exert influence over markets, consumer behavior, voters, and even global narratives.

Every click, every purchase, every GPS ping, every heartbeat recorded on a smartwatch - it's all being vacuumed up, analyzed, and—yes—unfortunately—weaponized.

Because those who control data don't just predict the future; they shape it.

Ask Elon Musk - chainsaw enthusiast, social media overlord, and apparently, data-hoarder-in-chief.

Word on the cybersecurity street is that he's been using DOGE to suck up data from hundreds of millions of Americans and anyone else whose personal information is lingering in the nooks and crannies of US government databases.

Just imagine what a guy who already owns a rocket company, a brain-chip startup, and an electric car empire could do with that kind of intel.

Now imagine how green with envy a techno sovereign and his “private” silicon patriot-crusader might be.

I'm talking, of course, about Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Huawei, who, like Musk, have long known the value of Big Data.

Distilled for clarity:

China's surveillance state? Built on Huawei's data.

The modernization of the PLA, the Chinese military? Leveling up in semiconductors, cloud computing, and Big Data processing is serviced by Huawei.

"Integration" between China's surveillance state, the military, and other large tech data collectors - like Alibaba, ZTE, Tencent, and Baidu- and the state security bureaucracy? You guessed it - Huawei's got the contracts for government cloud computing projects, data integration platforms, and E-government services.

It puts Musk and his deep China links - and Sean Green’s CCP-vetted soundbites - in a different light, doesn't it?

Singing China's fight song

But let's reset. Remember when Huawei hit a crossroads—when it lost the hearts of the Chinese people?

In case you don't, I'll help you refresh:

For years, China's middle class waved the Huawei flag, ditching iPhones for homegrown pride. Then reality hit—worker suicides, mass layoffs, and one wildly overprivileged "princess."

Huawei's cutthroat "wolf culture" pushed employees to their limits—grueling hours, relentless competition, and office sleepovers.

When Zhang Liguo jumped from Huawei's cafeteria to his death, his coworkers kept eating like nothing happened.

Then came Huawei's "princess" moment.

While CFO Meng Wanzhou was under house arrest in a six-bedroom Vancouver mansion, former employee Li Hongyuan rotted in a Chinese detention center for 251 days—his crime? Asking for severance pay.

His story—censored but leaked through coded numbers (985, 996, 251, 404)—shattered Huawei's myth as the champion of China's people.

And then, the fangs of US sanctions bit deep into their prey.

I'll never forget that day a Huawei executive turned beet red on stage, fumbling through a rage-fueled tirade, too furious to form words. He seemed eerily entitled, like a Silicon Valley tech bro who only reads books about how indispensable he is.

But what really caught my eye? Ren Zhengfei's next move.

Still seething over his daughter's detention, the gloves came off. Huawei stopped striving to be distinctly "private," elevating its status to that of China's chosen flagship - the commercial gold standard in Xi Jinping's state capitalism.

Huawei mirrored China's propaganda stance. Everything became about "self-reliance," "diversification," and "tech nationalism."

Suddenly, even Chinese state media couldn't shut up about Huawei - weekly headlines, sometimes daily, stuffing its name into stories about AI, quantum computing, and whatever else the telecom firm wanted to be seen.

Note the dates of publication when searching for "Huawei" on Global Times, for example—there is a constant barrage.

Why? Because Huawei isn’t just part of China’s story anymore.

The company - at Ren’s direction, no doubt, has rebranded itself - as China’s story.

Gone are the days when it really tried to convince the world it was just another private company. Now, Huawei mirrors Xi Jinping’s agenda, seamlessly aligning itself with China’s strategy of self-reliance, digital expansion, and economic dominance.

But if Huawei, as China’s most successful telecom firm, has amassed so much data that it now controls the tech narrative in China, it also controls much more than that, including the market and market “insights” on itself and other companies.

And if Huawei, as it appears to me, is Xi’s new czar of tech propaganda and dissemination, then it also controls what information is released about China’s tech industries.

And that raises the stakes for those choosing to contract with any tech company and for those trying to analyze any tech company’s prospects.

But more precisely, for both investors and national security analysts, the truth is:

If Huawei fails, China’s entire tech strategy takes a hit.

That’s why it won’t be allowed to fail, unlike China’s property sector.

That’s why it’s being woven into every story, every industry, and every industry-related - and sometimes unrelated - narrative.

Let’s be blunt: the Chinese Communist Party—the same outfit that wipes with certificates of stock ownership—has fused Huawei into the very architecture of China’s rise.

If that doesn’t make Huawei a state-owned company in everything but name, what would? A red flag on the roof? They already have the flower.

For Xi Jinping, Huawei isn’t just a national champion—it’s the digital spine of his Great Chinese Century.

Bear in mind that China’s economy is slowing down— and that some even argue it’s cracking at the foundation.

Real estate? A graveyard of ghost cities and bankrupt giants. Youth unemployment? So high they stopped publishing the numbers. Local governments? Up to their necks in hidden debt, hoping no one notices the water rising.

Then there are the falling prices amid private sector crackdowns, exports missing forecasts and a consumer confidence crisis.

At this point, China’s tech industry isn’t just building 5G towers and semiconductor fabs, it’s holding up the country.

And I am beginning to buy into Ren Zhengfei’s carefully crafted comeback story - that Huawei is the state. And the state is Huawei.

This Week's China News

The Big Story in China Business

TRUMP'S $1.5M PORT FEE PLAN AIMS TO SINK CHINESE SHIPPING: The Trump administration is gearing up to slap massive fees — up to $1.5 million per ship — on Chinese-built vessels entering US ports.

The goal? Use the windfall to resuscitate the barely-breathing American shipbuilding industry, which now holds just 0.1% of global orders compared to China's jaw-dropping 53%.

In practice, this means that port fees on Chinese-built ships would pressure major shipping companies—like Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Company and Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk—into sourcing their vessels from countries other than China.