Lenovo’s computers, including the ThinkPad that it acquired from IBM, are the most popular in the world. Credit: Andrew Skudder, Creative Commons
Lenovo has stayed hot despite the frosty climate for Chinese tech companies.
The world’s top personal computer (PC) seller has largely escaped the high-profile crackdowns that have marred the outlook for other high-profile Chinese firms such as Huawei and Hikvision. Lenovo has, in fact, benefited from the surging PC market during the pandemic, with its annual revenue reaching a record $60.7 billion last year.
Lenovo’s ability to fly under the radar, even as U.S.-China tensions worsen, may be down to politicians and regulators seeing it as posing little threat in areas such as intelligence gathering and cybersecurity.
Meanwhile, Lenovo’s parent Legend Holdings has remained active, partly through its two investment firms, Hony Capital and Legend Capital, both based in Beijing. Each has been in operation for nearly two decades, investing domestically and overseas in industries as far-flung as Australian seafood and Israeli online casino games.
Thi
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Did Eric Dai expose a Chinese scheme to steal critical military technology? Or did he steal millions of dollars from a Chinese company by exploiting geopolitical tensions? It's not entirely clear, but Dai's saga hits all the high notes of current U.S.-China tensions, including convoluted plots to illicitly acquire U.S. semiconductor technology and extraterritorial schemes to harass, intimidate and coerce the Chinese diaspora. What is clear is that, for Dai, who founded a successful Chinese investment firm but is now seeking asylum in the U.S., it feels like World War III.
The former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia talks about why engagement hasn’t failed, it just hasn’t succeeded yet; why strategic empathy is so hard to do; and why the U.S. needs an approach to...
