A rare look inside Huawei, China’s tech giant

A Huawei employee rests under his cubicle during his lunch break in Shenzhen, China. This is a common
practice at many workplaces in China, photographer Kevin Frayer said.

The Chinese company Huawei is one of the giants of the tech industry. It’s the world's
largest provider of telecommunications equipment, a leader in next-generation 5G
technology, and last year it passed Apple to become the second-biggest smartphone
seller in the world.
But to many, especially in the West, there’s still an air of mystery around it.
And in the United States, suspicion.

A thermal engineer performs a heat test in the research-and-development area of a Huawei facility in
Shenzhen.

Huawei employees leave work at the end of a week in late April.

For years, Washington has been concerned that the Chinese government could use
Huawei equipment to spy on other nations. The US government says Huawei could
pose a threat to national security because it’s unable to say no to the Chinese
government.
Huawei has pushed back against those allegations, saying it would refuse any Chinese
government requests to gain access to the technology it sells to telecom operators. But
last week, the Trump administration blacklisted the company, placing it on a list of
foreign firms barred from receiving components from US exporters without a license.

Huawei employees work on a production line in Dongguan, China.

A Huawei engineer displays parts in a research-and-development area.

A display for facial recognition and artificial intelligence is seen on monitors at Huawei's Bantian campus in
Shenzhen.

In an effort to dispel some of the mystery surrounding it, Huawei has recently opened
up its facilities to international media.
Kevin Frayer, a Getty Images photographer based in Beijing, traveled to southern
China in April to visit three of Huawei’s campuses.
“My goal was to take people a step beyond the breaking news and Huawei headlines,
to give them a sense of what the company looks like and to see who works there,” he
said.
 A worker in Huawei's cybersecurity lab works on his computer in Dongguan.

A Huawei engineer opens the door of a server unit during a tour of the cybersecurity lab in Dongguan.

Huawei has 180,000 employees worldwide. More than a third of them work at the
campuses Frayer visited in Dongguan and nearby Shenzhen, which is considered
China’s Silicon Valley.
The employees he encountered work in a variety of roles: production, research and
development, and finance, just to name a few.
“Jobs at Huawei are coveted,” Frayer said. “It’s among the highest-paying companies in
China for highly skilled workers, and many of its employees have been educated
overseas and at the country’s top schools. Some of the brightest minds are hired away
from other companies, and Huawei has also been luring foreign experts to join.”

Huawei employees play pool after work, at a recreation area in staff housing.

Frayer marveled at the size of the campuses he visited, especially Huawei’s

headquarters in Shenzhen and the European-style research-and-development campus
in Dongguan.
“When you first arrive, it is a bit overwhelming how spread out everything is,” he said.
“There are restaurants and cafes, sports facilities and its own transportation system.
They have villas and fancy dining rooms for high-level clients and low-cost housing for
employees.
“At the new European-style campus, the buildings are designed to reflect the company
founder’s training as an architect. And every day after lunch, the lights are dimmed in
most offices so workers can nap, which is common at companies in China.”

An aerial view of Huawei’s European-style research-and-development campus in Dongguan.

Huawei workers look at their smartphones as they lineup for lunch at the Dongguan campus.

An employee sleeps at her cubicle during her lunch break.

Frayer said the campuses feel like university campuses: quiet and relaxed, unlike much
of the country.
“The only reminders that you’re in China were the crowds at lunch hour and the end of
the work day,” he said.
Frayer was able to talk to some employees, and many of them expressed concern
about what they see as misconceptions about the company.
“They were very aware of the political challenges and the American view, and they
went to lengths to explain that Huawei is a tech company trying to innovate like any
other tech company — as one engineer put it, to make things that make life easier.”

A Huawei worker moves boxes on a train used by employees, clients and visitors at the campus in
Dongguan.

Some of the research-and-development areas were off-limits in the interest of

protecting intellectual property, and Frayer was asked at times not to photograph some
clients. But overall, he said, Huawei was very open in what they allowed.
He called the company a “juggernaut” and a source of national pride in China.
“It’s hard to really know what it’s like to work there, but people generally looked happy
and interested in what they are doing,” Frayer said. “You could feel that it’s big and
important and it’s growing.”