CHRONOLOGY: The meteoric rise of China's Huawei

BEIJING (Reuters) - In just over two decades Huawei Technologies HWT.UL has become the world's third largest maker of mobile telecommunications gear, but its rapid rise has also been dotted with controversy and missteps.

Here is a chronology of key events in Huawei's history:

1982 - Ren Zhengfei retires as an officer in the People's Liberation Army, where he helped build its communications network

1988 - Ren founds Huawei as distributor of imported PBX products

1993 - Introduces its first major product, a digital telephone switch with large capacity of over 10,000 circuits

1996 - Wins first big overseas contract for fixed-line network products from Hong Kong's Hutchison-Whampoa

2003 - Forms joint venture with 3Com to build Internet protocol-based routers and switches

2003 - Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) sues for copyright violations, but eventually drops suit after Huawei agrees to stop selling some products and alter others

2004 - Overseas sales surpass domestic sales for first time

2007 - State media says Huawei gives $146 million to 7,000 employees to quit and then rehired them to skirt the higher costs of a new labor contract law

2007 - Plan to buy 3Com with partner Bain Capital fails on U.S. government concerns over Huawei ties to military

2009 - Named world's top patent seeker, becoming the first Chinese company to head the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) list.

2009 - Suspends employee suspected of trying to steal data from Indonesian mobile firm Excelcomindo

2009 - 2008 contract orders rose 46 percent to $23.3 billion -- 75 percent of which came from overseas -- and expects orders to reach $30 billion this year.

2009 - Overtakes Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) to become world's No. 3 mobile network gear maker, doubling its market share from a year ago, according to researcher Dell'Oro

($=6.83 yuan)

(Reporting by Kirby Chien)