Huawei’s landmark criminal trial began in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on September 9. US prosecutors accuse the Chinese technology company of stealing trade secrets, deceiving banks and evading sanctions on Iran; Huawei has pleaded not guilty and says the case turns ordinary business disputes and individual misconduct into a company-wide conspiracy.
What prosecutors say Huawei did
The US government alleges that Huawei spent two decades pursuing technology from five US companies. The alleged theft includes internet-router source code from Cisco and a robotic arm used by T-Mobile to test phones. Related coverage: Rogue AI agent from OpenAI breached accounts at multiple technology companies.
Prosecutors also accuse Huawei of concealing the nature of its operations in Iran so that US dollars could move through the financial system despite sanctions. They allege that Huawei supplied equipment that could have helped Iranian authorities monitor protesters during demonstrations in 2009.
Key points
- The alleged conduct is said to have occurred from about 1999 to 2020.
- The charges include racketeering, money laundering, bank and wire fraud, sanctions violations, obstruction and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
- The trial is expected to last about three months.
- China’s government has condemned the prosecution as part of US efforts to suppress Chinese enterprises.
How Huawei is defending itself
Huawei’s lawyer Brian Heberlig told jurors that the case was about “competition, not conspiracy” and “innovation, not theft”. He said prosecutors had selected isolated incidents and portrayed routine activity by a global technology company as criminal conduct. Read the context: How a landmark court case proved Meta and Google built addictive social media platforms.
The defence says some incidents involved individual employees whose actions were handled internally rather than reflecting company policy. Huawei has separately said it respects intellectual property and described the US government’s broader case against it as an attempt to undermine its competitiveness.
Why the case reaches beyond the courtroom
The prosecution began during Donald Trump’s first presidency. In 2019, his administration placed Huawei on a US trade blacklist and urged allies to exclude the company from 5G networks, citing national-security and espionage risks. Huawei has repeatedly denied that its technology is used for spying.
The current case also follows the 2018 arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a US warrant. A sealed indictment accused Meng and Huawei of bank fraud involving claims about the company’s business in Iran. Meng returned to China in 2021 under a deferred prosecution agreement, and the charges were later dismissed. A US judge ruled in June that admissions she made under that agreement could be used as evidence in the trial.
China’s Foreign Ministry has called the prosecution US “suppression and containment” of Chinese enterprises and said Beijing supports Chinese companies in protecting their rights. The legal case is separate from the US-China trade dispute, but it sits within a broader technology rivalry that now includes semiconductors, artificial intelligence and restrictions on advanced chipmaking technology.
What happens next
The trial is expected to last about three months and overlaps with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s September 23–25 visit to Washington, where trade, artificial intelligence, tariffs and access to critical technologies are expected to be discussed.
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