H UA W E I 67 retired as a colonel and went to work for the state-owned Shenzhen Electronics Corporation. Four years later, he took out a loan for $8.5 million from a state-owned bank and launched Huawei Technologies with a total staff of 14 people. CHANGES IN CHINA'S APPROACH TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS Ren's decision to launch Huawei in 1988 coincided with major changes in China's approach to telecommunications. From the period following the Chinese revolution (1949 through 1979), the telephone system was state-financed and state-owned. It was oper- ated by the Bureau of Posts and Telecommunications (BPT), which came under the joint direction of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics Industry. The goal was to provide telephone service to help the country's overall