Miro-Markus Nikula, 25, was impressed by smart technology in China. He got to know the industry in a student group, invited by the Huawei company.
BEIJING The technology company Huawei’s product development center on the outskirts of the Chinese capital is an impressive place.
From the outside, with its glass walls, it looks like the headquarters of any Finnish company, but its interior architecture is a combination of different styles. The building has both large stone halls and palatial meeting rooms decorated with columns and ornaments.
Huawei is the world’s largest network equipment manufacturer, which is expanding its territory aggressively.
The center tells the story of the growth of the product range to consumer electronics and smartphones. The next step is a digital ecosystem ranging from weather services to smart cities.
Corona caused a long break
A group of European engineering students have visited the center this week. 22 engineering students from 18 European countries were selected for Huawei’s “Seeds for the Future” program.
Translated into Finnish, the name of the program is Future seeds. One of the participants is studying data science and telecommunications Miro-Markus Nikula.
– This is amazing. Lots to see, do, learn, Nikula describes her mood.
He says that during the program, which lasted a good week, he got a whole lot of new information. In addition to Beijing, the group visited Shenzhen in southern China.
– It is difficult for me to assess the sophistication of China in other respects, but as a student of the field, I can say that at least Huawei’s 5G technology is of a very high standard. Even the world’s top technology, he reflects diplomatically.
Nikula talks about his impressions of Shenzhen in the video below.
The Future Seeds program was on hiatus for three years due to the corona pandemic. Huawei representatives characterized the interest as high throughout Europe.
25-year-old Nikula had the last chance to join, as his studies at Aalto University are almost complete.
– I heard about the program for the first time many years ago. It seemed tempting. I wanted to visit China, meet new people and learn something new, he says.
To work in China?
One of the purposes of Huawei’s program is to identify new employees for the global company.
The number of foreigners living and working in China more than tripled in the 2010s. In 2020, the number was just over 845,000.
More recent numbers are not available, but the number of foreigners is not believed to have increased significantly only after 2018.
Foreign students There were a total of 492,000 in China in 2019. In 2022, the number was only 292,000.
Nikula, who will graduate in the spring, starts looking for a job. His long-term dream is entrepreneurship, but before that he wants to gain work experience.
Nikula could imagine working in China at least for a while, if a suitable job offered.
– The companies have so much new technology that you would learn a lot here, he thinks.
However, there are challenges associated with working in China or a Chinese company. One of them is the language: you should know some Chinese.
The living environment would be completely different. Born and raised in Vantaa, Nikula appreciates Finland’s closeness to nature, which cannot be found in China’s big cities.
China worries the West
Western countries increasingly see authoritarian China as a threat to world order. In OP’s recent survey, more than a third of the managers of large Finnish companies considered China to be a problem for their industry.
Many are also suspicious of China’s communist system and state control apparatus.
Huawei was evicted from the US in 2019. US authorities accused the company of industrial espionage. Huawei denies the accusations.
Huawei reminds the critics that 267 of the companies on the Fortune magazine’s list of 500 leading international companies cooperate with Huawei.
– These are difficult questions that I can’t take a stand on. However, I see that Huawei and Chinese companies in general have technology that is very useful and can be learned from in Western countries as well, says Nikula.