Chinese people recently have been using the term “wolf culture” to describe a company or a person who behaves like a wolf, who is willing to take any measure to win, and who ignores human nature and morality.

Epoch Times interviewed some former employees of Huawei’s subsidiary in Toronto who took the opportunity to expose Huawei’s “wolf culture” in Canada.

1. Taking down Nortel: Huawei offered prices 40 percent below market so it could quickly grab the global telecom market. It was able to do so because of the Chinese government’s subsidies and the People’s Liberation Army’s “gift contracts.” In addition, from 2004 to 2009, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) hackers had been consistently hacking into Nortel’s system to steal its secrets. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Huawei was able to hire all of Nortel’s top five 5G experts and make them work for Huawei.

2. Operations in Canada: Huawei maintains a tight central control over its financial operations. It is the Chinese Headquarters in Shenzhen that makes the calls on major financial decisions for its overseas branches. The Shenzhen Headquarters must review all overseas branches’ pricing of equipment proposals and solutions. The Shenzhen headquarters has over 10,000 staff member managing its financial operations globally.

3. Discrimination on “Chinese Faces”: A former Huawei employee said that Huawei Canada has been discriminating against employees because of their race and age. This was the company’s culture in China.

Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou visited Huawei Canada in Toronto in 2016. She was reported to be unhappy when she saw so many “Chinese faces” in the office there.

A former employee said, “(Huawei) prefers non-Chinese people for non-technical positions, such as the public relations positions,” so that the company can appear more “Westernized.”

A former Huawei employee recalled that a high-ranking executive did not like the high labor cost and said that he expected the salary of employees of Chinese origin to be much lower.

4. Discrimination on age: A high-ranking executive sent from China to Huawei Canada in 2016 launched a policy to “make employees younger.” Meng Wanzhou further strengthened this policy.

Chinese media have widely reported Huawei’s “age of 35” policy: If an employee reaches the age of 35 and has not become a manager, Huawei puts that person in a human resource database at the Headquarters in China; if no department wants the person, Huawei will let that person go.

“We often heard that so and so was fired for age,” a former employee said, “Though there is no written evidence, people have been discussing it.”

Another employee who was diagnosed with cancer and took sick leave was let go due to her age. Another employee, in her 50s, was let go too, despite the fact that she maintained a high performance rating. She complained to Huawei management that their action was age discrimination. Huawei denied discrimination but increased her severance pay. She protested again. Huawei increased severance pay again, but still didn’t offer to bring her back. She is considering taking legal action.

5. Communist Study: About 10 percent of the people at Huawei Canada’s Headquarters are from the Shenzhen Headquarters. They must participate in the CCP study every Saturday morning.

6. “Wolf Culture”: All employees, including those hired in Canada or sent from China, must follow the “wolf culture” that Huawei’s Founder Ren Zhenfei has promoted: employees must have the hungry wolf’s nature of being fearless and blood-loving, and must keep fighting in a tough team environment. “There are instructions (about ‘wolf culture’) on Huawei’s internal site for everyone to read and follow. Their idea is that, no matter what, you must fight for success, even if it means to step on your fellow coworkers. They asked us to read the ‘wolf culture’ articles and write learning reports to send to China’s Headquarters.”

“Employees work an average of 10 hours a day. It is normal for people to resume work after dinner. There is no overtime pay. Occasionally you hear a story that someone complained about it and was then fired. The company didn’t give a reason for the firing, but everyone knew why.”

If Huawei wants to fire someone, it creates a tough situation at work for that person, for example, increasing his workload and giving him a low rating, to force that person to leave.

Source: Epoch Times, December 7, 2019
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/19/12/7/n11707767.htm