In a nutshell: The US government is notoriously mistrustful of Chinese corporations, particularly those involved in the telecommunications industry, like Huawei or ZTE. We're seeing further evidence of that today: the US Justice Department has charged Huawei and two of its US-based subsidiaries with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets, among other things.
This news comes straight from the horse's mouth – the DOJ published a press release discussing its decision today. The alleged Huawei subsidiaries impacted by this investigation include Huawei Device Co. Ltd., Huawei Device USA Inc. Futurewei Technologies Inc., and Skycom Tech Co. Ltd.
Huawei's CFO, Wanzhou Meng, is also being directly targeted by the DOJ. The organization believes Huawei and its subsidiaries have been conducting a "decades-long" effort to "misappropriate" intellectual property from "six" unknown US tech companies, in an effort to grow their own business. Some of the property in question allegedly includes trade secret information, "copyrighted works" like source code and user manuals, and more.
Huawei, the DOJ alleges, accomplished this misappropriation by entering into confidentiality agreements with US companies, and then breaking them later on when it became profitable to do so.
If that wasn't bad enough for Huawei, the tech company is also under fire for allegedly becoming "involved" in business projects within countries suffering sanctions from the US, EU, and UN, such as Iran and North Korea.
The DOJ's investigation is ongoing, so we're not sure when (or if) this case will go to trial. However, we'll keep you updated over the coming months if any new information comes to light.
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