Huawei has extensive ties with not only the Ministry of State Security, which is kind of like a combination of the CIA/FBI, but also the Shanghai State Security Bureau and Organization 610.
Regarding 610, it might exist it might not. Supposedly operating as a “CIA within a CIA”, they are kind of like a Praetorian Guard that reports to the highest levels of the CCP.
Anyway Ren Zhengfei, the founder, is a former Army Colonel in the PLA. He was a specialist in comm systems, and was “laid off” in 1983. This was the same year the MSS was founded, which wound up kind of “stealing” all the intelligence work and signals stuff that had previously been the domain of the Army.
Later the MSS would find it much more advantageous to establish front companies, and it was this wave of front companies with unlimited black budget funding that began in mid 1990s that Ren rode all the way to the top.
FUN FACT: The Green Army, one of the original Chinese hacking groups from 1996-1997, eventually all of its first members came together and established Nsfocus.com which still exists today and is quite big.
Regarding 610, it might exist it might not. Supposedly operating as a “CIA within a CIA”, they are kind of like a Praetorian Guard that reports to the highest levels of the CCP.
Anyway Ren Zhengfei, the founder, is a former Army Colonel in the PLA. He was a specialist in comm systems, and was “laid off” in 1983. This was the same year the MSS was founded, which wound up kind of “stealing” all the intelligence work and signals stuff that had previously been the domain of the Army.
Later the MSS would find it much more advantageous to establish front companies, and it was this wave of front companies with unlimited black budget funding that began in mid 1990s that Ren rode all the way to the top.
FUN FACT: The Green Army, one of the original Chinese hacking groups from 1996-1997, eventually all of its first members came together and established Nsfocus.com which still exists today and is quite big.