It is a rare event for a well-resourced multinational to struggle to find a lawyer to represent it. It is an even rarer event when its main competitor lends a helping hand in the search.
But chasing corporate ambitions in China can make even the sharpest executives do strange things.
In late 2020, when Swedish Post and Telecom Authority banned Chinese telecoms firms from supplying equipment to Sweden’s fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks on security grounds, Ericsson’s boss, Börje Ekholm, did almost everything in his power to see the decision reversed. This included helping Huawei, China’s tech champion, seek a Swedish law firm to appeal the ban against it.With few takers, however, the Chinese company eventually had to proceed with Norwegian representation. Ekholm also lobbied the Swedish government to not move ahead with a Huawei ban, and he even suggested it may no longer be tenable to keep Ericsson’s 13,000 strong staff and headquarters in Sweden.
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.
The future of finance — the way Wall Street operates and how you manage your personal finances — is on the verge of upheaval. And although few could have anticipated it, the force underlying the change comes from China, a country that went from "financial repression" to the global leader in "fintech" in only a matter of years. The resulting system could either be liberating or Orwellian.
The former Secretary of Defense talks about what went wrong during the 'rebalancing' effort; Xi Jinping's big mistake with ethnocentrism; and the 'Great Firewall of self-isolation.'
