"Why is Huawei sanctioned by the United States, but the Chinese company Xiaomi is not?"
[Text/Observer.com Tong Li]
"Why is Huawei sanctioned by the United States, but Xiaomi is not? Aren't they all Chinese technology companies?" This week, a screenshot of the Q&A of Quora, the "American version of Zhihu", sparked heated discussions on multiple social platforms in China.
In the respondent's view, "Huawei and Xiaomi are Chinese technology companies with completely different natures, so their treatment is completely different. The rules of the game in the old world are that "Westerners enjoy the most vacations, the best benefits, the highest salaries and incentives, while people in developing countries work hard and work overtime for a pittance and struggle to support their families." But now, Chinese companies like Huawei are determined and are becoming "disruptors".
Huawei's "upgrading and fighting monsters" along the way has resonated with many netizens. In Gao Zan's comments, he also has high hopes for Xiaomi and other Chinese companies.
"Why is Huawei sanctioned by the U.S. and Xiaomi not? Aren't they all Chinese tech companies?" Screenshot of social media
According to the account information of @Aya Shahn, the respondent of the observer, he has lived in Singapore since 1997 and graduated from the National University of Singapore with a master's degree in computer science.
Since opening his Quora account in January, he has frequently answered countless China-related questions. For example, "Why are Middle Eastern investors keen to allocate more resources to China?"
There is also a strange question from this angle: "Surprisingly, China says that the Taiwan region belongs to China, so when Singapore has the largest number of Chinese, can China also say that Singapore belongs to China?"
and "Why are Chinese so friendly to foreigners who have moved to China?" ... His answer received a lot of likes.
On November 7, @Aya Shawn answered a question that attracted a lot of attention: "Why is Huawei sanctioned by the United States and Xiaomi not? Aren't they all Chinese technology companies?"
The core of his answer is "the history of world globalization and the changes in the role of Chinese enterprises", and subdivides it into "Chinese enterprises version 1.0" to "version 4.0", and Chinese enterprises have gradually upgraded from "processing and manufacturing" to "subversive" roles.
@Aya Shawn 写道:
"Before the 80s of the 20th century, China was one of the poorest and most backward countries in the world... Throughout the '90s and the first decade of the 20th century, China was like a magnet that attracted manufacturing from all over the world, and countless companies developed in China. ”
"Chinese companies are following the model that the West wants... They take on the heaviest and hardest work, but only get 10% of the profits, and Western companies take 90% of the profits. ”
"Some companies are starting to try to enter a new stage: [China Enterprise Version 2.0 Independent Manufacturing]. ”
"They got rid of mere processing and started to focus on technology, trying to build their own brand and market capabilities... But most of their profits are still taken by Western companies through patent licensing and imports of key components, and they can only compete in the Chinese market, with no pressure on foreign counterparts. ”
"[Chinese Enterprises Version 3.0: Independent Production, Global Competition]"
But they still have the Achilles heel (observer's note: Greek warriors, born whose mothers held their heels and dipped them in the waters of the River Styx, so that they were invulnerable except for unsoaked heels): key components and technologies were in the hands of their Western counterparts. For example, the Qualcomm chip and Android system of Xiaomi mobile phones, such as the Intel processor and Windows system in Lenovo computers. ”
"Therefore, although Xiaomi has squeezed out the share of traditional peers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Sony, for every mobile phone sold, Western companies get the most profits, and Chinese still take a small part." ”
Finally, @Aya Shawn writes about "Chinese Enterprises 4.0: Disruptors": "Chinese companies master the core technology and solve all problems, Chinese companies provide their own key components, Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and complete assembly and production, and Chinese companies are responsible for global sales." ”
"Not only do they make great products, but they also use core components and basic software that are completely developed in-house. They intend to completely take away the fattest piece of meat from the mouths of Western companies. ”
@Aya Shawn argues that the essence of versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 of Chinese companies is the same, in the chain of globalization, Western companies take the best part of the food, and Chinese companies get the leftover food scraps. But 4.0 Chinese companies are trying to disrupt the rules of the game that have existed for decades.
"Why do Westerners enjoy the most vacations, the best benefits, the highest salaries and incentives, while people in developing countries work hard, work overtime, and struggle to support their families for a pittance? ”
"Eventually, their appearance caused tension in Western countries ... Kings and nobles found that they could no longer defeat the subversive by the 'rules of civilization'. So they shouted: they are thieves, liars, traitors, do not believe them. He silently picked up his gun as he aimed at the man running ahead. ”
Image from IC Photo
This answer has been recognized and manually liked by many foreign netizens.
Some netizens raised in the comment area, "Huawei threatens the technological hegemony of the United States, but Xiaomi does not." ”
"Huawei is a leader in many technology areas that threaten the absolute dominance of the United States, such as in telecommunications and 5G. Once a country adopts Huawei's technology, it becomes more difficult for the NSA to spy on them. This is a completely different threat from Xiaomi making its own chips to enhance its own products. This in itself has little effect on the United States. ”
"It took decades for China to get to where it is today, but it's not 100 percent. India, on the other hand, is already being shouted to be a leader in the future. ”
But the comments with the highest likes also have high hopes for Xiaomi and other Chinese companies.
"It won't be long. Xiaomi is planning to design its own operating system and SoC. At this point, most Chinese companies are moving away from U.S. technology because they know that U.S. sanctions will come sooner or later. ”
"So almost every Chinese company that uses American parts is redesigning their products so that they no longer use American parts. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before Xiaomi is sanctioned... The United States simply cannot stand the competition. ”
It is worth noting that on October 17, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi Group, posted on Weibo that Xiaomi's new operating system, Xiaomi Surging OS (Xiaomi HyperOS) The official version has been packaged, and the first new series of mobile phones equipped with this system has been delivered to the factory to officially start production. "From this moment on, Xiaomi Surging OS will gradually take over from MIUI. Today is a historic moment for Xiaomi. ”
These statements have also hammered the fact that Xiaomi's self-developed operating system has been rumored on the Internet for a long time. As a result, Xiaomi's stock price immediately closed up nearly 4%.
Coincidentally, on November 1, at the vivo developer conference, vivo officially released its self-developed operating system BlueOS. Vice President of vivo, Vice President of OS Products, and President of vivo AI Global Research Institute recently introduced that the Blue River operating system is not compatible with Android applications for the time being, and the future will depend on needs.
Prior to this, in recent years, the U.S. government has imposed "long-arm jurisdiction" sanctions on Huawei and many other Chinese companies in the name of so-called national security, which China firmly opposes.
In May 2021, Xiaomi Group reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to remove Xiaomi from the Trump-era so-called "military-related blacklist," which required U.S. investors to divest their normal investments in Xiaomi Group. Bloomberg reported that Xiaomi's settlement with the U.S. Department of Defense marks a "rare victory" for Chinese tech companies in a confrontation with the U.S. government.
In late August, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Raimondo paid a four-day visit to China, where he led the U.S. Department of Commerce to enforce most U.S. export controls on China's high-tech sectors. But on August 29, Huawei launched a new 5G mobile phone in a low-key manner under the three-year chip blockade in the United States, causing a strong sensation in the United States. After Raimondo was "surprised" and "unhappy", he admitted that the report about Huawei's breakthrough in chips was "extremely disturbing".
Quora's full answer is as follows:
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