The story
Incorporated in 1997 as China Telecom (Hong Kong) Limited, China Mobile was born from the 1999 break-up of China Telecommunications Corporation. This company continues to provide mobile services, however.
In May 2008, the company took over China Tietong, a fixed-line telecom and the then third-largest broadband Internet service provider in China adding Internet services to its core business of mobile services.
In October 2014, Nokia and China Mobile signed a $970 million framework deal for delivery between 2014 and 2015.
China Mobile is among the state entities which contribute to the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, which was established in an effort to decrease China's reliance on foreign semiconductor companies. The fund was established in 2014.
In December 2021, China Mobile announced that its international arm would cease operations in Canada due to national security concerns by the Canadian government.
U.S. sanctions
In November 2020, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included China Mobile. On 31 December 2020, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it would suspend trading in China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from 7 to 11 January 2021 and start the delisting process, causing stock values to drop. On 4 January the decision to delist was suddenly reversed; two days later, the NYSE said that the delistings would proceed. In the aftermath of the delisting, the company announced its decision to raise up to US$8.8 billion ahead of the Shanghai stock exchange listing, according to an official Weibo post by the company.
In March 2022, the Federal Communications Commission designated China Mobile's U.S. subsidiary, China Mobile International USA, a national security threat. In March 2025, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party initiated an inquiry into China Mobile and issued subpoenas for company records in April 2025 over security concerns. In June 2025, the FCC stated that China Mobile had failed to cooperate with its probe to determine whether it had evaded sanctions.
Operations in Russia
China Mobile has, like other major Chinese firms, maintained business in Russia amid the ongoing international sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is also alleged to have supported Russian propaganda during the invasion.
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According to Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU), Hikvision and Dahua (of which China Mobile is a shareholder) hacked surveillance cameras have been used to gather intelligence on critical infrastructure and military movements such as during the 2 January 2024 Russian strikes in Kyiv, where two compromised outdoor cameras are said to have been used to guide the strikes.
From Wikipedia’s article on China Mobile, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4