Huawei's Mate XT smartphone and the price of US-China tech race

Amid a sharpened US-China tech war, cooperation is dead and the world is worse off.

- Lim Min Zhang

On Sept 10, Huawei announced its tri-fold phone touted as the world's first - just a day after Apple unveiled its latest slate of iPhones.

At a stadium in Shenzhen, Huawei executive Richard Yu unveiled the Mate XT, which has a 10.2-inch (25.9cm) display when fully unfolded, calling the product "turning science fiction into reality" after a development period of five years.

The eye-watering starting price of 19,999 yuan (S$3,656) hardly deterred Chinese fans. More than six million had signed up for alerts before the device shipped on Sept 20. Scalpers are already asking for more than three times the retail price.

In contrast, the iPhone 16 line-up announced by Apple which has been losing smartphone ground to Huawei in China - was viewed as offering mainly iterative upgrades over the models in 2023.

In a week where Chinese firms from biotechnology to drones came under scrutiny from Washington, Beijing's retort was that it is the one innovating, while its chief rival is stagnating.

The reality is far more complicated. China still faces constraints in breaking free of the chokehold of the US and its allies in the critical semiconductor industry, which powers modern electronics from fighter jets to home appliances.

What is clear is both countries increasingly view tech competition as a zero-sum game that neither can afford to lose.

The casualties are the global goods that come out of the cooperation between the two science and tech powerhouses.

HUAWEI'S TURNAROUND

It is difficult not to be impressed by the Mate XT as a feat of engineering. This reporter briefly handled the device in a crowded Huawei store in Beijing on Sept 16.

Even when fully closed with the three screens stacked on top of each other, it is not much thicker than the usual "slab" smartphone.