What Huawei’s New Mate 60 Means for China, the U.S. and the Global Tech Industry
The debut of the Chinese giant's new smartphone calls for a nuanced debate about how effective U.S. trade policy has been.
Visitors experience Huawei's Mate 60 at Huawei's flagship store in Shanghai, China, September 24, 2023. Credit: Costfoto/NurPhoto via AP Images
Huawei, the Chinese telecom heavyweight, is back in the headlines with its new Mate 60 series smartphones. After being hit by U.S. export controls, which took away its ability to use the latest semiconductors, and having been denied access to Google's software since 2019, Huawei appeared to be fading. So the official launch on September 25 of the Mate series, and other products using Huawei’s new homegrown chips, was a big deal in the industry.
The new chip’s development means Huawei’s devices can once again compete with other companies operating within the current generation of mobile wireless capability. U.S. export controls had, since 2020, cut the company off from using its self-designed advanced semiconductors, which were previously produced at Taiwanese chip making giant TSMC’s foundries.
Huawei has been clawing its way back into the consumer handset business ever since. While it has developed its own mobile operating system, HarmonyOS, designing the chips at
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.
A decade ago, China arrived on the global art scene with deep pockets and an abundance of swagger. Recently, however, China's economic downturn has caused a spate of museums to close and once prominent collectors to sell their collections. Can China ever achieve its dreams of "cultural self-confidence"?
The Harvard professor discusses the effects on Chinese society of the country's high-tech development, and how the pandemic may have shifted public attitudes.
The Global Intelligence Platform used by The Wire China