Liu Liehong

Liu Liehong serves as Chairman of China United Network Communications Group (China Unicom), the third-largest telecommunications operator in China after China Mobile and China Telecom. Unicom serves over 330 million mobile subscribers and over 100 million wireline broadband customers, and operates one of China's three major 5G networks. Historically the weakest of China's three telecom operators by subscriber count and profitability, Unicom has pursued a differentiation strategy under Liu's leadership centered on the "Big Computing" and "Big Connectivity" concepts. This involves heavy investment in cloud computing, AI capabilities, edge computing, and enterprise digital transformation services — seeking to grow higher-margin technology services revenue faster than the declining trajectory of traditional mobile ARPU. Liu's most notable strategic initiative has been Unicom's mixed-ownership reform — China Unicom was one of the first major Chinese SOEs to bring in private-sector strategic investors including Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, and Baidu. This reform was intended to improve governance, inject technology capabilities, and accelerate digital transformation. His decisions on 5G network sharing (Unicom shares 5G infrastructure with China Telecom to reduce costs), cloud and AI investment levels, enterprise service customer acquisition, and dividend and shareholder return policies are the primary drivers of Unicom's stock.