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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 15 February 2020
U.S. brings new charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei

By ERIC TUCKER in Vancouver, British Co- The indictment details ef- steps that the company to "We believe they're deliber-
Associated Press lumbia, and has yet to be forts to steal from a half conceal its business deal- ately misleading and hop-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The extradited to the U.S. dozen companies. ings with Iran and North Ko- ing if they throw enough
U.S. Justice Department mud then some of that
has added new criminal mud would stick," he said in
charges against Chinese a media conference call.
tech giant Huawei and Asked about the charges,
several subsidiaries, accus- a Chinese foreign minis-
ing the company of a bra- try spokesman called on
zen scheme to steal trade Washington to "stop op-
secrets from competitors in pressing Chinese business-
America, federal prosecu- es."
tors announced Thursday. "The United States has mis-
The new indictment also used its national power
alleges the company pro- to oppress Chinese com-
vided surveillance equip- panies with no proof of
ment to Iran that enabled any wrongdoing," said the
the monitoring of protest- spokesman, Geng Shuang.
ers during 2009 anti-gov- He spoke in a regular news
ernment demonstrations in briefing that was conduct-
Tehran, and that it sought ed over social media as
to conceal business that it part of government efforts
was doing in North Korea to contain a virus outbreak
despite economic sanc- by avoiding public gather-
tions there. ings.
The company disputed the "Such practice is disgrace-
allegations in a statement ful and immoral, and it is
and called them them beneath the status of the
"without merit." China's for- United States as a major
eign ministry accused the country," Geng said. "Such
U.S. government of "eco- economic bullying prac-
nomic ebullying" and im- tice is a blatant denial of
properly using security alle- the market principle, for
gations to "oppress Chinese which the U.S. has been
companies." a self-proclaimed cham-
The new allegations come pion."
as the Trump administration Trump administration of-
raises national security con- In this Jan. 8, 2020, file photo, national security adviser Robert O'Brien, listens as President Donald ficials, including Cabinet
cerns about Huawei, the Trump addresses the nation from the White House in Washington. Associated Press secretaries, have recently
world's largest telecommu- leveled national security al-
nications equipment man- legations against Huawei in
ufacturer, and aggressively The latest indictment, an In one May 2013 episode, rea, including by referring an effort to encourage Eu-
lobbies Western allies to bar update of a case first filed according to the indict- to both countries in internal ropean nations to ban the
the company from wireless, last year, accuses Hua- ment, a Huawei engineer documents by their code gear from next-generation
high-speed networks. wei of plotting to steal the removed a robot arm from names. cellular networks.
The superseding indict- trade secrets and intellec- the laboratory of a rival In a statement, Huawei Secretary of State Mike
ment, brought by federal tual property of rival com- company based in Wash- called the new indictment Pompeo and Defense Sec-
prosecutors in Brooklyn, panies in the U.S. ington state, stashing the "part of the Justice Depart- retary Mark Esper are mak-
adds to the company's le- In some instances, prosecu- item in a laptop bag. The ment's attempt to irrevo- ing the pitch to Western al-
gal woes in the U.S. It adds tors said, Huawei recruited engineer emailed photo- cably damage Huawei's lies during a trip to Munich
charges of racketeering employees of competitors graphs and measurements reputation and its business this week.
conspiracy and conspira- to steal intellectual proper- of the arm to others at Hua- for reasons related to com- Attorney General William
cy to steal trade secrets to ty. The company also pro- wei before the arm was petition rather than law en- Barr, in a speech last week,
an existing criminal case in vided incentives to its own returned to the company, forcement." lamented what he said
New York, where the com- employees by offering bo- which had discovered the "These new charges are was China's aspiration for
pany already faces charg- nuses to those who brought theft. without merit and are economic dominance and
es of lying to banks about in the most valuable stolen At a 2004 trade show in Chi- based largely on recycled proposed that the U.S. in-
deals that violated eco- information, and it used cago, a Huawei employee civil disputes from last 20 vest in Western competitors
nomic sanctions against proxies, including profes- was found in the middle of years that have been previ- of Huawei.
Iran. sors at research institutions, the night in the booth of ously settled, litigated and The administration's nation-
Federal prosecutors in Se- in the pursuit of inside infor- a technology company, in some cases, rejected by al security adviser, Robert
attle have brought a sep- mation, prosecutors said. "removing the cover from federal judges and juries," it O'Brien, asserted this week
arate trade secrets theft The stolen information in- a networking device and said. "The government will that Huawei can secretly
case against the company. cluded antenna and robot taking photographs of the not prevail on its charges, tap into communications
Meng Wanzhou, a senior testing technology as well circuitry inside," prosecutors which we will prove to be through the networking
Huawei executive and the as user manuals for inter- said. both unfounded and un- equipment it sells global-
daughter of the company's net routers. One goal of The employee wore a fair." ly. The company disputes
founder, is accused of mak- the theft, the Justice De- badge that listed his em- Huawei's global cyberse- that, saying it "has never
ing false representations to partment said, was to al- ployer as "Weihua," or Hua- curity officer, John Suffolk, and will never covertly ac-
banks about Huawei's rela- low Huawei to save on re- wei spelled with its syllables said there's "no evidence" cess telecom networks, nor
tionship with its Iran-based search and development reversed. to support the U.S. allega- do we have the capability
affiliate. She was arrested costs. The indictment also lays out tions. to do so."q