The preface states that the arrival of the AI and everything-connected era is accelerating, and the birth of HarmonyOS was a historical inevitability. As Wall Street and Washington further deplete Silicon Valley's technical leadership, the single-core technological ecosystem dominated by the U.S. is increasingly losing its innovative vitality. Globally, another layer of technological ecology has emerged. With the release of HarmonyOS PCs, another important piece of the HarmonyOS ecosystem puzzle has fallen into place.
Recently, Dr. Fang Xingdong, author of "HarmonyOS Creation," pointed out in an interview with Observer Network that "one out of three" is not the upper limit for the HarmonyOS ecosystem, but at present, HarmonyOS still faces the challenge of crossing the "death valley." He emphasized that for everyone who pays attention to, cares about, and participates in the HarmonyOS ecosystem, managing expectations, maintaining confidence, and embracing possibilities are the greatest care for HarmonyOS. This is not only related to Huawei's survival and development but also carries the mission of China's high-tech independence and the global healthy competition of high technology.
Observer Network: You and Mr. Xu (Xu Zhijun) decided early on to write this book. What were your original intentions and expectations? Did you adjust during the writing process?
Fang Xingdong: This book was planned in 2019 as the second part of Huawei's "Six Roots Technology Series."
In Huawei's relevant management literature, there have already been many systematic discussions from professional perspectives. "HarmonyOS Creation" is very thrilling to read; its uniqueness lies in breaking through the meso-level dimension. In terms of macro architecture and micro details, we can learn and imitate practical things, and understand key contents such as specific product development, technical research, and decision-making processes.
The outbreak of the tech war provided us with an opportunity to record. Suddenly, Huawei faced multiple pressures from the U.S., and most people, whether in public opinion or within Huawei itself, found it hard to believe America’s actions. After the relevant situation became apparent in 2019, Mr. Xu and I communicated and planned to document the next five years with these six books. We originally envisioned interviewing about 50 people per book, but this number was quickly exceeded in practice. For example, over 100 people were interviewed for the HarmonyOS book.
We originally planned to publish all six books by 2024, but so far, only two have been officially released. Another two books about semiconductors still need to be released at the right time.
In our planning, HarmonyOS was the most necessary one for C-end familiarity in the "Six Roots Technology Series." The outside brilliance and the inside sweetness and bitterness are two different things. At that time, we estimated that the related problems could basically be solved in five years, but in reality, five years were insufficient.
To date, HarmonyOS has only taken its first steps.
The majority of the phones we previously used were not yet "true" HarmonyOS versions. The HarmonyOS version released on March 20th this year and the first batch of PC versions released on May 9th are true HarmonyOS versions. Pure HarmonyOS has just begun, and the time frame is definitely slower than originally estimated. However, overall, our judgment at that time had good foresight. There was such an opportunity to microscopically, specifically, on a large scale, and systematically review this product of Huawei, which developed under such difficult conditions.
In February this year, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has applied to register multiple graphic trademarks related to "HarmonyOS computers."
Observer Network: The development process of HarmonyOS is similar to your writing process, discovering more than originally planned in actual practice.
Fang Xingdong: Yes, the overall direction and basic judgment were roughly correct, but in actual execution, new problems will continue to arise, and the root causes will be gradually traced. After thorough investigation, I found that many things we thought we were well-prepared for were actually not.
As the initiator of the Global Internet Oral History Project, I know the importance of recording the development of science and technology history. The oral history project started in 2007. Initially, I thought that with my professional background and industry resources, completing an internet history book would be relatively easy. However, in the actual writing process, I found that relying solely on publicly available information often involved superficial content, and some were hearsay. To deeply understand the people and events back then, only by interviewing key figures would we gain insight. This is precisely why our team spent a lot of effort interviewing more than 100 experts and practitioners of HarmonyOS.
Based on the concept of truthful records, when writing this book, I abandoned any theories, concepts, or patterns, nor did I use storytelling or dramatization techniques. Instead, I tried to reconstruct and sort out the real situation of Huawei, especially handling the complexity and diversity of its development, including conflicting views, complexities, and different judgments. The actual difficulty of doing so far exceeded our expectations.
Observer Network: You are the initiator of the Global Internet Oral History Project. If you were to analogize, how would you compare the history of creating HarmonyOS with any stage of the development of the internet?
Fang Xingdong: I would compare it to the first 25 years of the internet's inception.
I believe the greatness of the internet lies in the fact that it did not start with a clear top-down design from the beginning. When it was initially proposed, the idea behind the internet was merely to share different computer resources and was not intended to establish a global information network.
From 1969 to the early 1990s, the internet was never considered by the industrial sector to change the world, nor was anyone foreseeing its enormous commercial value. Even the U.S. government did not view it as a project of significant strategic importance.
Experimental networking of "ARPAnet" in 1969
Therefore, the development of the internet was not the result of far-sighted planning by a certain department or a genius, but rather a gradual iterative, accumulative, continuously generating, and mutually adaptive process.
The success of the internet largely stems from its early perception as a scientific research project and a public good, rather than a commercial product. This pure public attribute is very critical.
The development of the HarmonyOS operating system is also like this; it is essentially a quasi-public platform product, requiring continuous power sharing and profit distribution. The development of HarmonyOS does not follow traditional commercial logic but needs to cultivate an ecosystem to provide public goods for the industry.
Thus, in creating HarmonyOS, Huawei also underwent a self-revolution, transitioning from a product company to an ecosystem company, which was no easy feat. HarmonyOS is the handle of this transformation.
During the development of HarmonyOS, Huawei encountered many detours. Ren Zhengfei is not always able to make decisive decisions on everything. When Huawei was driven to the brink, it spurred them to delve deeper into innovation. The Songhu Battle was Huawei HMS's attempt on a double-framework to replace Google GMS services. This large-scale investment did not yield expected commercial returns, and can even be considered a failure. However, it was these failures that laid the foundation for the rise of HarmonyOS. Through large-scale training in the application layer of the operating system, Huawei accumulated valuable experience, paving the way for future developments.
Despite the immense difficulties, I believe HarmonyOS will ultimately succeed. It is the trend of the times, and no other companies, including international ones, can develop a third system in China. Only Huawei has the ability to pioneer the ecosystem of this system.
Huawei Songshan Lake Base
Observer Network: Your perspective is very interesting. In the early days of the internet, it served as a public category for everyone. This reminds me of an interview with Luo Wei, executive director of the Working Committee of Project Groups at the OpenAtom Open Source Foundation in 2020. He mentioned that his generation of IT professionals once deeply believed in American internet spirit.
When they were young, they believed that every ten years, American IT professionals could drive a global iteration of information technology, from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. But this iteration was interrupted in the 2010s, and by 2016, people worldwide were waiting for the emergence of an operating system for the Internet of Things and everything-connected, but they never got it.
He mentioned that from the perspective of global technological evolution and market demand, there was indeed a need for such a public product. However, America did not provide such a public product, which was one of the reasons why Chinese IT professionals began to create their own "HarmonyOS" and open ecosystems. The process of practical operation was also a process of demystification, and they began to discover that the "internet spirit" they once believed in was not as pure as they thought Americans practiced it.
You mentioned earlier that people once regarded the global internet as a public product, but as they gradually realized its commercial value, no one came forward to promote the provision of public products, leading to unmet real demands. Is this the internal cause for the launch of products like HarmonyOS?
Fang Xingdong: Yes, I think this is the trend of the times. In recent years, Silicon Valley has actually reached its lowest point. In the 1980s and 1990s, Silicon Valley elites looked down upon Wall Street and Washington because innovation was "the world needing me." But now, Silicon Valley revolves around Wall Street investors and Washington politicians, hoping the U.S. government will keep Huawei and Chinese enterprises in check.
I believe that Silicon Valley sliding toward this path violates the true spirit of innovation and science.
As you mentioned, in the early days, America indeed provided global public goods, maintained and guided the entire internet technology ecosystem. In certain aspects, China's early internet technology sector was riding on the coattails, including internet companies like BAT, as long as they copied the American model, they could benefit from China's growing internet user base and economic reforms. People mistakenly thought that "high technology" was like this.
Silicon Valley programmers in the late 1980s and early 1990s
But today we find that without solving core technology issues, others will not let you continue to develop. If Huawei does not address root technologies and academic construction in industrial and public domains, Huawei has no way out.
Therefore, I divide China's IT industry into "before HarmonyOS" and "after HarmonyOS."
I believe that before HarmonyOS, China's high-tech was a low-innovation era where little capital needed to be invested in researching core technologies; it was enough to grow crops on the foundation of American core technologies. Many people either did not see or were unwilling to see that the land was not ours.
By the time of the era Luo Wei described, global technology and industries depended on the single-core ecosystem centered around America, but the biggest problem with the single-core ecosystem was the lack of competition. It became a tool for capital to obtain monopoly profits and was weaponized by politicians to seize strategic interests. Absolute monopoly leads to absolute corruption, and the original innovative spirit was eroded rapidly.
So today, developing HarmonyOS is not only a necessity for Huawei, not only a necessity for China's industrial sector, but also a necessity for the global high-tech ecosystem.
Observer Network: Very interesting. A monopolistic system is closed, and the lack of competition will dissipate internal innovation momentum. The inclusion of China's system represented by HarmonyOS truly introduces global technological innovation into a competitive landscape, making it a true free market competition.
Fang Xingdong: Yes, the single-core ecosystem is difficult to sustain. For the global industry, only returning to a competitive landscape can stimulate genuine innovation. Looking around the world today, only the prosperity of China's industrial ecosystem has the conditions to grow a new superstructure, and only China's ecosystem deserves to be an opponent to America.
In China, apart from Huawei, no other company can take on this task. Therefore, it is the times that chose HarmonyOS, a historical inevitability.
On May 19th, at the new product launch event, the first HarmonyOS foldable laptop MateBook Fold and the HarmonyOS laptop MateBook Pro were officially unveiled.
Observer Network: And objectively speaking, political sanctions have helped Huawei and China strengthen their determination and unify their thoughts.
Fang Xingdong: Many details mentioned in the book point to the fact that HarmonyOS was not Huawei's true autonomous choice; it was not made out of ideals and beliefs with unlimited resources to charge ahead. It was forced into this position by politics. However, in the six years since, I have never seen Xu Zhijun express even a single negative or pessimistic sentiment. Meanwhile, once the company made a decision, the fighting spirit and execution capability shown by Huawei employees are truly unique.
Observer Network: Your book also mentions that for HarmonyOS, technology is the foundation, and the harder dimension is building the ecosystem. You mentioned two ecosystems earlier, and the entire system represented by "The Six Roots Technology Series" is the upper structure emerging from China's manufacturing ecosystem, providing "another option" globally.
Fang Xingdong: We need to thoroughly understand this issue, as it is historically inevitable.
An Apple phone sells for $1000, and it requires China's supply chain to achieve that. However, in most countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, a smartphone that can be afforded costs between 200 to 400 RMB. Therefore, America's consumer electronics ecosystem cannot be scaled down. This means that if all 8 billion people in the world want to enter the digital age, relying solely on the elite system dominated by America cannot complete it.
Using an inappropriate analogy, China's current dominant digital ecosystem is somewhat like the Android system, while America's dominant ecosystem is akin to the Apple system. Among the global middle and high-income groups, Apple still has an advantage. These two systems will have overlapping positions, but overall, they are competitive.
Observer Network: It sounds similar to the rural encircling urban strategy in technological ecosystems. Huawei previously attacked the lower-tier markets internationally before expanding to Europe and America. This is also what Chinese mobile phone brands like Vivo, OPPO, and Transsion have been doing.
Fang Xingdong: I believe Huawei certainly first considers HarmonyOS's ecosystem from its own corporate strategy perspective, but we, as outsiders, can observe it from the entire industrial angle.
Therefore, from my perspective, "HarmonyOS Creation" differs from the mid-level management perspective; instead, it approaches from macro and micro levels. Science and technology have their own development laws; trends outweigh individuals, and trends shape individuals. You cannot resist them but must ultimately adapt to them, regardless of how far-sighted your previous vision or how high your management level is, you must follow the fundamental laws of technological development.
I believe that HarmonyOS should aim to ensure Huawei's survival first, then promote China's high-tech independence, and ultimately promote global healthy competition in high-tech, with actual impacts far exceeding the initial planning.
The future of HarmonyOS should resemble the Android system, shouldering the mission of the artificial intelligence and everything-connected era, providing the world with China's system choice, enabling global consumers and industries to achieve technological freedom.
Observer Network: You mentioned "one-third of the world" several times in your book. Do you think using this measure exceeds expectations?
Fang Xingdong: From a trend perspective, I believe it will eventually exceed one-third. However, realistically, I believe that in the next one or two years, HarmonyOS first faces the "death trap" of a new ecosystem.
Only when the number of active users reaches a certain scale can it provide sufficient motivation for application updates and HarmonyOS adoption.
The single-framework HarmonyOS system released on March 20th marks the beginning of a new technological era. After personal use for over a month, I personally believe it performs quite well, exceeding expectations. As a secondary mobile system, it brings native applications and a completely new experience, showing great potential.
However, if trying to use it as a standalone mobile system, some shortcomings become apparent. For example, many biometric applications are not yet fully adapted to HarmonyOS, and entering community or building access control may encounter difficulties. Even commonly used applications like WeChat still have many small features in their HarmonyOS versions that are not yet perfected compared to traditional versions.
As a truly new system, the development of HarmonyOS requires participation and support from everyone. If everyone gradually starts using HarmonyOS and the number of users grows steadily, all application developers will have more motivation to develop vendor-neutral applications, thus forming a virtuous cycle. This will be a positive development process, which may gradually show results in one, two, or three years.
This is not just Huawei's matter; it is a process of mobilizing the whole society and industry.
Observer Network: This also involves the issue of attention. You mentioned earlier that HarmonyOS is the most desired household name among the six root technologies. You also mentioned the concept of racing against time for the ecosystem in your book. Companies following the HarmonyOS ecosystem need to eat, and if there is no return on investment over two or three years, it becomes unsustainable.
At the 2025 time point, attention on HarmonyOS objectively is not as high as it was in 2020 and 2019. From your perspective, what kind of attention is conducive to the healthy development of the HarmonyOS ecosystem?
Fang Xingdong: I believe the current attention should not be too high. The attention in 2019 and 2020 was due to the entire tech war stirring up emotions. In fact, at that time, HarmonyOS was not yet here, but people mistakenly thought this operating system was already everywhere.
Today, the most important thing for the HarmonyOS ecosystem is steady growth in users. If excessive attention leads to a sudden influx of users, it may result in poor experiences and subsequent disappointment.
Ecosystem construction takes time, and users should gradually adapt. Unrealistic expectations and demands should not be overly catered to. After all, this is a new system and new ecosystem competing with mature system ecosystems that have developed over more than 10 years. It is not yet time for this, and there must be an adaptation phase.
Currently, the price of HarmonyOS phones is not cheap. As long as a few thousand users are achieved by the end of the year, and mainstream applications can be continuously improved, with experiences becoming increasingly close to Android, that will suffice.
HarmonyOS is not developed; it is created by everyone using it. It cannot be left unused, nor can it be rushed in; it cannot be too cold or too hot—this is indeed an art.
Observer Network: Public attention should not be overly enthusiastic, hoping for natural growth through system iterations. However, do we hope that industry developers receive more attention to attract more talent to join this ecosystem?
Fang Xingdong: The development of the ecosystem cannot happen without the participation and support of a wide range of developers. Currently, both Android and Apple ecosystems each have millions of applications and tens of millions of developers, forming massive developer ecosystems. As a brand-new system, HarmonyOS has uniqueness in programming languages and development tools, meaning developers need time to learn and adapt.
Currently, relatively few developers truly understand HarmonyOS, whether through self-study or leveraging higher education resources. Developers' growth requires a startup process. Professor Chen Haibo's team writing related textbooks and cultivating talent echelons are crucial for the construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem. The higher education system plays an irreplaceable role in knowledge dissemination and talent cultivation, allowing more students to begin understanding HarmonyOS during their learning phase and contribute to the HarmonyOS ecosystem after graduation.
Additionally, although social training resources are gradually enriching, compared to the higher education system, their completeness and systematicness still have gaps. Therefore, we need to gradually mobilize and integrate various educational resources and institutional forces to support the construction and development of the HarmonyOS ecosystem.
Observer Network: For all parties involved, what kind of sense of gain do they need to use HarmonyOS or join the HarmonyOS ecosystem?
Fang Xingdong: Before the release of HarmonyOS products, many domestic enterprises had invested substantial manpower and resources, with high costs. Under the U.S.-dominated technical system, even if application vendors developed well, they remained in a passive state. For example, some companies found ways to improve the operating system, but whether these suggestions would be accepted by Android or iOS, and when, was not something we could decide.
From the national, industrial, and enterprise perspectives, this passive situation has left a deep impression. Therefore, if China can launch its own operating system and make it more open than those abroad, all parties hope to change the status quo. Enterprises supporting the HarmonyOS ecosystem are motivated by both commercial interests and considerations for promoting national industrial development. Ideals and realities intertwine, but ultimately, enterprises will focus on immediate benefits.
Currently, both Android and Apple ecosystems include numerous terminals that are highly fragmented in their interconnectivity. Android is based on the Linux kernel from its early stages, with over 30 years of history, which brings maturity but also an efficiency burden; many codes correspond to hardware that is no longer in use.
As a communication provider, Huawei has a natural advantage in connectivity. The HarmonyOS system adopts a new kernel and architectural approach suitable for the IoT and AI era. Once issues arise during usage, the initiative remains in our hands, allowing for rapid iterations and timely solutions.
Observer Network: You mentioned that the ecosystem is about redistributing interest patterns, involving much negotiation. We saw that WeChat eventually joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem. Could you elaborate on the negotiation between them?
Fang Xingdong: I did mention in the book, "The story of HarmonyOS and WeChat can write a separate book," though it was only briefly touched upon.
Their competition and cooperation are very complex. Not only does America "choke" them technologically, but WeChat also exerts competitive pressure on HarmonyOS, mainly involving issues of interest and power distribution between super applications and software-hardware platforms.
Nowadays, the core value of a phone has shifted to the application ecosystem. WeChat, as the largest "super app," has quietly become a "quasi-operating system," and users spend most of their time using WeChat on their phones. On the other hand, Huawei phones and the HarmonyOS operating system serve as the underlying infrastructure, being key supports for the ecosystem. Without them, the entire ecosystem would struggle to function.
After prolonged negotiations, Huawei and WeChat finally reached a collaboration, which is beneficial for both sides and the entire ecosystem. This process also reflects the essence of ecosystems—a public space involving the interests and rights of diverse stakeholders.
The core of an ecosystem lies in symbiosis, and those taking on the role of providing public goods cannot only consider their own interests. If WeChat cannot survive in the HarmonyOS ecosystem, then HarmonyOS itself will struggle to develop, and vice versa.
Especially for Huawei, adapting to this shift in ideology requires long-term adjustment and is constrained by the current survival state.
Compared to Google, which due to its limitations will not venture into the mobile hardware domain, people feel that the Android ecosystem is "safe." Assuming Huawei's chip production capacity makes a breakthrough in five years and can generate more profits through chip businesses, the imagination space for exiting the mobile business exists. This might significantly change the operating system landscape.
Therefore, many issues need to be resolved during the development process, despite current challenges and dissatisfaction. I believe that as long as sufficient time is given, the HarmonyOS ecosystem will continue to improve and develop.
Observer Network: Your book invited over 100 participants of HarmonyOS for interviews, mainly from internal or micro perspectives. Have you tried examining it from a macro perspective, including European and American and global southern perspectives?
Fang Xingdong: The pressing task for HarmonyOS is to stabilize its foothold domestically. After all, application vendors are a key component of the ecosystem, and domestic enterprises can be fully mobilized. National interests, commercial interests, and market size must all be taken into account.
Of course, Huawei's products are not limited to the Chinese market. As discussed earlier, all countries around the world need HarmonyOS, but it must first solidify its base in China and demonstrate the superiority of its technology and ecosystem. In fact, even with advanced chip fabrication constraints, Huawei can maintain relative parity with Apple and other friendly competitors, which already demonstrates the importance of the operating system.
This year, HarmonyOS's main goal is to attract 100 million users, primarily relying on natural growth in the domestic market. To achieve a leap from 300 million, 500 million, to 1 billion users, overseas user support will be essential.
Observer Network: Does this book currently have plans for translation?
Fang Xingdong: I believe "The Six Roots Technology Series" must be published abroad to allow people to truly understand the work state, spirit, and rise logic of Chinese enterprises during this period. I believe these six books will be the most authoritative records.
For Belt and Road countries and the global south, China's system is an important option for achieving overall societal digitization. More and more people will realize that only when there are two systems to choose from can people have autonomy; otherwise, they can only rely on the American system.
Observer Network: Your book "HarmonyOS Creation" has been released at this time point. You also mentioned that HarmonyOS has a long way to go. What are your plans for continued updates to the content?
Fang Xingdong: Of course, we should respect and present real history, but as the saying goes, "a thousand people have a thousand faces," and "many opinions make it hard to reach a consensus" is an objective existence. Many details in the book still need further refinement, and I will continue to revise and update it.
Additionally, after all six books are completed, I believe a summary of Huawei's achievements over the years is necessary, and a mid-level summary should be conducted. I estimate that this project may require eight to ten years.
Observer Network: Last question, who do you hope to attract as readers for this book, what message do you hope to convey, and what impact do you hope to produce?
Fang Xingdong: I believe "HarmonyOS Creation" is very special among the six books; it is suitable for the general public and for anyone who wants to deeply understand high technology, innovation, and business.
A new era has arrived, and everyone bears a mission. China's past 30 years were a journey that achieved many unimaginable breakthroughs. But now we are at another pivotal moment, and HarmonyOS, along with DeepSeek, indicates that Chinese enterprises possess strong capabilities in core technology research and development. As Liang Wenfeng said, first comes confidence; without confidence, there is no imagination, and no great cause can be accomplished.
In the past, our thinking was often confined domestically. Now, the technology war and tariff war have made us face our strengths and potentials squarely, pushing us towards a broader world. In this digital and intelligent era, we are starting to build global information industry top-level designs. We are no longer limited to a market of 1.4 billion people; our users are the global 8 billion people.
Therefore, I hope these books will help everyone break free from mental limitations, open up broader thinking frameworks, and for the new generation, they need not be limited to past paths but can be more confident in exploring innovation and breaking old boundaries.
Observer Network: Thank you for the interview, let's pass on confidence and possibility together.
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