U.S. Accuses Huawei of Stealing Trade Secrets, Defrauding Banks

In China, stealing trade secrets is called “打破技术封锁” (breaking the technical blockade). The U.S. does not even need to collect evidence through investigation. Just by reading Chinese news reports and textbooks, you will find there are lots of Chinese nationalist stories about their hero technician &#x2F; scientists steal western technologies. They are literally proud of it.<p>I heard from my Chinese friends who work in the US universities in the field of EE, CS, material, etc.. Huawei actually has personnel monitoring their university webpages. Add working project to your webpage, Huawei could call&#x2F;email you the next day (in Chinese of course) if they find something they want to buy to get ahead.

These look like serious charges:<p>Defrauding four large banks into clearing transactions with Iran in violation of international sanctions.<p>Conspiracy to obstruct justice by moving employees out of the United States so they could not be called as witnesses before a grand jury in Brooklyn.<p>Conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing, impeding, obstructing and defeating, through deceitful and dishonest means, the lawful governmental functions of an agency of the United States.<p>Money laundering conspiracy.<p>Conspiracy to steal trade secrets about robotics from a competitor, T-Mobile.<p>Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;01&#x2F;28&#x2F;us&#x2F;politics&#x2F;meng-wanzhou-huawei-iran.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;01&#x2F;28&#x2F;us&#x2F;politics&#x2F;meng-wanzhou-...</a><p>If the charges are true, I hope Ms. Meng is extradited and prosecuted, and the company barred from operating in the US.<p>But if this is just a bargaining chip to be exchanged for a few worthless face-saving trade deal &quot;wins&quot; for this administration, it will be disgrace.

Speaking as a Canadian, this is already old news for us. There have been lively debates over on &#x2F;r&#x2F;canada, which went very one-sided (understandably) after China arrested two Canadians as leverage. [1]<p>As someone who likes to follow geopolitics, I can&#x27;t help but wonder if the timing of this extradition request was strategic. When Meng was arrested, Canada was in the middle of NAFTA&#x2F;USMCA re-negotiations and our Prime Minister was publicly musing about diversifying our trade partnerships, specifically focused on engaging with China. The automatic arrest of one of China&#x27;s &quot;royals&quot; per our extradition treaty with the US was an extremely effective way of erasing our only major leverage on that negotiation.<p>IIRC the charge of bank fraud for business dealings in Iran was largely unrelated to Huawei&#x27;s (sketchy) telco business. Kind of like how they got Al Capone on tax evasion.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;12&#x2F;12&#x2F;world&#x2F;asia&#x2F;michael-spavor-canadian-detained-china.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;12&#x2F;12&#x2F;world&#x2F;asia&#x2F;michael-spavor...</a>

On what planet is the idea of making a robot with a mechanical finger to press phones to test them a trade secret .... (as a phone developer) it&#x27;s so blooming obvious I&#x27;ve spent hours of meeting discussing exactly this<p>It&#x27;s only a trade secret if you think the entire rest of the world is stupid

It is well known in the optical networking space that Huawei stolen the entirety of Nortel&#x27;s DWDM proprietary data and research, and used it to build their own dwdm platform product line.

To commenters in this thread explaining that this is unfair (since almost all countries including US did it at some point of time), the main issue is that USA is powerful enough to do something about it. They can rally up support from their allies and keep Chinese companies from gaining any international adoption. Look at how they got Meng from Huawei arrested - it was almost unreal. This is how the world works today.

China needs to take down its firewall or be shut out from the international markets. Blocking foreign web traffic in the age of digital commerce is blatant protectionism and WTO rules should be updated to prohibit such practice.

I am really concerned about the rapid development of the Huawei case. Sure Huawei has issues, but which corporation doesn’t. If you are an US exec, I would limit travel to China as one can risk being arrested for frivolous reasons.

Article implies the part about stealing tech from TMobile is well documented and already resolved in court...<p>It feels weird to me that this wasn’t a bigger deal?

you already know how it is with the US Gov: free markets are great unless we lose, in which case free markets go out the window and we start going after your relatives. hopefully China will not drop to that level, but we&#x27;ve already seen the nationalists arresting Canadian citizens. let&#x27;s just hope Tim Cook doesn&#x27;t have any relatives travelling to China.

Does anyone remember if HP was punished for allowing a reseller to send millions of dollars of computers to Iran? I also saw HP logos on the monitors during footage of a North Korean missile test.

Banks trade with sanctioned countries and only get slapped with large fines. No bank officer has been arrested in trades with Iran or any other sanctioned country.

Remember that the laws these supposedly insidious foreigners are accused of breaking are in the same moral category as the ones your beloved hacker heroes rail against. Is this a China vs US dispute, or a war by capital against people, with one of the weapons being a magical spell that turns knowledge into property that they can own and profit from?

To be honest, this case has everything to do with Huawei&#x27;s background (state connected, state supported). Possible not fair competition and fear of espionage dooms Huawei whatever the case details are. BTW companies steal. All in the game.

Blah blah blah, Trump has eyes set on bringing down China&#x27;s leading industries for his decoupling doctrine, so anything goes. The specifics don&#x27;t even matter. If you&#x27;re a rat chasing specific charges you&#x27;re already missing the forest for the trees.

No doubt Huawei did this. And no doubt Trump will wipe their slate clean for a trade deal. So it sucks for Canada.<p>US has sanctions on Iran, not China so getting around them is not considered a crime for them. Of course they will steal any technology them deem essential for their business.<p>Bank fraud is probably lying to banks about doing business with Iran, not cheating them of money.

It boggles my mind why the Chinese choose to take on nefarious endeavors when they are already ahead.

I have to be honest — the allegations made here do not surprise me. The days of corporate espionage seem alive and well, and China’s image in the United States is taking a significant hit.<p>It isn’t fair to the honest, hard-working Chinese nationals who want to build a life outside their homeland.

In a Data Structures class a few years ago, during a review for our upcoming exam, the professor had to abruptly leave the room... I forget why. While they were gone, a Chinese student runs up to the podium and grabs the papers the professor was reading from and takes it back to their large friend group. When the professor returned, they didn&#x27;t have their notes (I think it was a previous year exam). Feeling uncomfortable, the professor was unable to get the thief to confess, and class was over.<p>About one day before the exam, a friend of mine said he was offered the texts and it had circulated to pretty much anyone who wanted it.