House of Huawei Audiobook By Eva Dou cover art

House of Huawei

The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

House of Huawei

By: Eva Dou
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.50

Buy for $22.50

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The untold story of the mysterious company that shook the world.

On the coast of southern China, an eccentric entrepreneur spent three decades steadily building an obscure telecom company into one of the world’s most powerful technological empires with hardly anyone noticing. This all changed in December 2018, when the detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies’ female scion, sparked an international hostage standoff, poured fuel on the US-China trade war, and suddenly thrust the mysterious company into the global spotlight.

In House of Huawei, Washington Post technology reporter Eva Dou pieces together a remarkable portrait of Huawei’s reclusive founder, Ren Zhengfei, and how he built a sprawling corporate empire—one whose rise Western policymakers have become increasingly obsessed with halting. Based on wide-ranging interviews and painstaking archival research, House of Huawei dissects the global web of power, money, influence, surveillance, bloodshed, and national glory that Huawei helped to build—and that has also ensnared it.

©2025 Eva Dou (P)2025 Penguin Audio
Business International Relations Politics & Government Trades & Tariffs War

Critic reviews

“In House of Huawei, Eva Dou uncovers how Huawei has become China’s most successful tech company—and a lightning rod for geopolitical competition. Based on unique interviews and deep research into the company’s history, House of Huawei provides the most in-depth account of Huawei’s rise and its complex and controversial connections to China’s security state. House of Huawei is essential reading for understanding China’s tech sector and the China-US tech competition.”
—Chris Miller, author of Chip War

“A groundbreaking work on China’s most important company. More than online shopping or video apps, the Communist Party is obsessed with telecommunications networks, semiconductors, and surveillance systems. At last we have a book that unveils Huawei’s deepest mysteries.”
—Dan Wang, fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center

“Eva Dou’s House of Huawei is an extraordinary feat of both reporting and historical research, providing an unprecedented look inside one of the world’s most important companies. Huawei is now a central player in the technological contest between the US and China, and this book is a fascinating account of how it became so powerful—and so controversial.”
—Matthew Campbell, co-author of Dead in the Water

“A timely, clear, and undeniably worrying account.”
Kirkus

What listeners say about House of Huawei

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good description of how China understood the critical importance of telecom technology before other countries in the west

The book does a good job of weaving the history of the company with the rise of China as a global economic powerhouse. It focuses on critical instances where the Chinese government understood they needed to directly support emerging technology companies. The book also does a good job of highlighting how the CCP appears to infiltrate and steer private companies that they can then use to push their agenda. It doesn’t openly state it, but it accurately describes the inconsistencies between Huawei’s stated policies and positions and what they were actually doing while growing their business around the world, particularly in emerging markets and conflict zones.

Overall a good book. My only problem was following the story along while trying to connect the Chinese names which I imagine is difficult for most people with western sounding names. I did manage to connect the dots when a person appeared throughout the book, so I managed to get the reason for including the main characters in the story and how some of the supporting characters played into the plot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Balanced and well researched view of Huawei

Eva did a good job of shedding light on the inner workings of a fairly secretive company. Having been in the telecom industry and done business with Huawei living in China I’d say this depiction of their culture and operating model is fairly accurate.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fascinating parallels with the TikTok ban and Deep Seek

The writing was dry and the narrator uninspired but the story was incredibly interesting. There isn’t a conclusive position taken regarding Huawei; only a thorough deep dive into the evidence.

Hard to recommend but I am very glad I read it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!