In Huawei’s head office last month, staff gathered to celebrate the in-house development of software to replace a US system that, thanks to Washington’s export controls, the Chinese technology company was no longer able to purchase.
“Three years ago, we were cut off from the old ERP [enterprise resource planning] system,” said Tao Jingwen, a Huawei board member and president of its quality, business process and IT management department. “Today we are proud to announce that we have broken through that blockade. We have survived!”
Tao was speaking at the Huawei campus in the southern city of Dongguan, on a stage decorated with banners proclaiming the “heroes fighting to cross the Dadu River”, a reference to a gruelling march by the ultimately victorious Communist army in China’s civil war.