WIRED contacted Huawei to ask about its potential role in the subsidies. Huawei did not comment in time for publication.

One of the earliest subsidies appeared online in March, when the Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Longgang District—the district where Huawei’s headquarters are located—posted that local car buyers can get up to 4,000 RMB (about $560) for buying a car that runs on Huawei’s driver-assistance system. The subsidies will be given out on a first-come first-served basis until the total budget of 14,000,000 RMB is exhausted, meaning over 3,500 Shenzhen residents could have benefited from it.

Starting in May, many announcements in similar language were subsequently posted by the commerce bureaus in other provinces and municipalities. In China, these commerce bureaus function as consumer regulators, and are in charge of distributing government subsidies, including a massive program launched last year to encourage trading-in old electronics and cars to help stimulate the economy. The fact that the Huawei subsidies are being announced through the commerce bureaus make them almost indistinguishable from the official government welfare program.

In some cases, like in Henan and Anhui provinces, the subsidies were instead published by provincial auto industry associations. While these are technically private trade groups, the announcements were printed on official-looking letterheads and with red stamps, giving them a sense of authority.

After American trade restrictions devastated Huawei’s global smartphone business and essentially forced it to exit markets outside of China, the tech giant has been trying to reinvent itself. Along with creating the Harmony operating system for smartphones, smart appliances, and cars, it’s also increasingly working on large language models ...