Sixth Keynote Speech of the “Fudan Transnational Corporations and Law Forum”: TNCs and ICT International Law-Making: A Case Study of Huawei

Updated: 04,19,2021

On April 16th, 2021, the sixth keynote speech of the “Fudan Transnational Corporations and Law Forum” and the fourth episode of this Forum’s special series of “TNCs and International Investment Agreements” was held successfully online. The speech titled “TNCs and International Law-Making in the Area of Information Technology: A Case Study of Huawei’s Participation in Developing 5G Standards” was delivered by Dr. SU Yu, Assistant Professor of Xiamen University School of Law.

Before starting to introduce the specific means and methods by which TNCs develop technical standards of information and communications technology (ICT), Professor SU firstly shed light on the reasons why multinational technology companies are increasingly active in the activities of ICT standardization, from the perspectives of the definition of technical standards, key composing provisions, and why the ICT standard-developing processes are open and friendly to private actors. Professor SU then used the development of 5G ICT technical standards to illustrate relevant institutions involved in the standard-setting processes and their organizational structures, the experts serving as standard makers, and specific processes in developing ICT standards. When it came to the main theme of this lecture, namely, the specific roles of multinational technology companies in ICT standard development, Professor SU used relevant cases of Huawei to demonstrate the complex and repeated interactions among multiple actors in developing standards. Lastly, in light of the features of and path changes in other countries’ policies in developing ICT standards, Professor SU expressed his hope for further participation of Chinese TNCs in developing ICT standards.

Mr. YU Rongdao, Deputy General Manager of Culture Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. and former chief patent engineer of Huawei’s wireless communication sector, and Associate Professor WANG Yue from Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Law contributed inspiring comments on the covered topic. In the Q&A part of the lecture, Professor SU and the audience had intensive discussions on the specific fields in which TNCs have the opportunity to participate in standard-setting, the categories of experts serving as standard drafters, states’ influence over TNCs’ participation in developing standards, and how to balance the needs for innovation and sovereign control to ensure fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory market competition.

Next Friday, April 23rd, the Forum will host the seventh keynote speech titled “International Investment Arbitration and Shareholders’ Indirect Claims” by Associate Professor ZHU Mingxin of Kenneth Wang school of law, Soochow University.

 

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