Huawei is facing a landmark criminal trial in the United States, where prosecutors allege the Chinese technology giant spent two decades stealing trade secrets, deceiving banks and evading sanctions on Iran.
The case opened in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on September 9 and is expected to last about three months. Huawei has pleaded not guilty, arguing that the US Government is presenting isolated actions by individual employees as evidence of a company-wide conspiracy.
What prosecutors allege against Huawei
The charges include racketeering, money laundering, bank and wire fraud, sanctions violations, obstruction and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from five US technology companies. Prosecutors say the alleged misconduct took place between about 1999 and 2020.
In opening remarks, Justice Department lawyer Taylor Stout described the case as one of “Theft, lies, cover-up”. Prosecutors allege that Huawei took technology including internet-router source code from Cisco and a robotic arm used by T-Mobile to test mobile phones.
The company is also accused of concealing the nature of its operations in Iran in order to move US dollars through the financial system despite American sanctions. Prosecutors further allege that Huawei supplied equipment that could have helped Iranian authorities monitor protesters during demonstrations in 2009.
Huawei denies wrongdoing. Its lawyer, Brian Heberlig, told jurors the case was about “competition, not conspiracy. Innovation, not theft. Ordinary business dealings, not criminal conduct.”
Mr Heberlig said prosecutors had “cherry-picked isolated events” to construct a conspiracy that did not exist. He said some incidents involved employees whose conduct was dealt with internally and did not represent company policy.
He also accused the prosecution of taking routine activities by global technology companies and twisting them “to try to make them look criminal”. Huawei has separately said the broader case was intended to damage its competitiveness and that the US Government’s “overarching narrative is demonstrably false”.
Huawei trial comes amid US-China technology dispute
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 concerns.
Huawei has repeatedly denied that its equipment is used for spying. The company’s technology has since become one of the most prominent targets in the wider economic and technological rivalry between Washington and Beijing, which has expanded from telecommunications into semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Beijing has condemned the criminal trial. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the Government “firmly opposes the US side’s suppression and containment of Chinese enterprises” and “firmly supports Chinese enterprises in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests”.
The proceedings are taking place weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit Washington from September 23 to 25. Trade, artificial intelligence, tariffs and access to critical technologies are expected to be among the issues discussed.
The case is also linked to the 2018 arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a US warrant. A sealed indictment accused Ms Meng and the company of bank fraud for misleading HSBC and other banks about Huawei’s business in Iran.
Ms Meng returned to China in 2021 under a deferred prosecution agreement, and the charges against her were later dismissed. However, admissions she made as part of that agreement can be presented in the current trial after a US judge ruled them admissible in June.
Huawei has also faced scrutiny in Europe. Belgian prosecutors launched an investigation in 2025 into suspected bribery allegedly involving the European Parliament and benefiting Huawei. The Parliament subsequently suspended access for the company’s lobbyists, while Huawei said it had “zero-tolerance” for corruption and would co-operate with authorities.
