Proof that the UK is open for business: a Chinese takeaway for GCHQ

You might think it redundant to say that the world’s biggest manufacturer of telecoms equipment is a name to watch. But Huawei — which isn’t quite pronounced ‘Who are we?’ but perhaps ought to be — really does deserve scrutiny. This beacon of Chinese enterprise overtook its main rival, Ericsson of Sweden, in the first half of this year with more than $16 billion of sales. It has just announced an expansion of its UK activities, which include a research facility in Ipswich and a ‘cyber-security evaluation centre’ in Banbury, promising to create 700 jobs and winning applause from David Cameron.

It is a supplier of equipment to 45 of the world’s top 50 mobile network operators, including BT and Vodafone, and provides ‘managed services’ for networks in 60 countries. It employs 140,000 people around the world, an astonishing 62,000 of them in R&D; among them is Whitehall’s former chief IT officer, John Suffolk, with the title of ‘global cyber-security officer’.