Huawei under U.S. criminal investigation for alleged theft of trade secrets from T-Mobile, other tech companies

Why in news?

• China’s Huawei is the subject of a U.S. criminal investigation in which federal prosecutors say the Chinese tech company stole trade secrets from U.S. business partners including technology behind a robotic device T-Mobile used to test smartphones, called “Tappy.”
• In Seattle, a jury agreed that Huawei was liable for misappropriation of the robotic technology T-Mobile developed in its Bellevue, Washington, labs.
• The Justice Department is already investigating whether Huawei violated U.S. export sanctions related to Iran.
• After the Trump Administration imposed a ban on the sale of American technologies to ZTE last week for similar export violations, this latest development feels like deja vu all over again and could cast a serious shadow over the business of the $92.5 billion Chinese company.

Background:-

• This is not the first time that Huawei comes under scrutiny from the U.S Government for possible export and sanctions violations.
• The action is the latest in a long list taken to fight what some in the Trump administration call China’s cheating through intellectual property theft, illegal corporate subsidies and rules hampering US corporations that want to sell their goods in China.
• The investigation arose out of civil lawsuits against Huawei, the Journal said, including one in Seattle where Huawei was found liable for misappropriating robotic technology from T-Mobile.
• In November, the Justice Department announced a new initiative to stop Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft. The department said that it would work alongside the FBI to stop these trade secret thefts and would pursue civil action to block any export of products from China that were created with US designs.
• US lawmakers have put Huawei’s actions under a microscope over the past year. New pressure mounted when a bipartisan group of House lawmakers proposed legislation that would impose the same harsh penalties on Huawei that were proposed on behalf of another Chinese telecom, ZTE, last summer.
• If approved, the bill would enforce bans on the export of US components to Chinese companies that have violated either sanctions or export laws.
• Huawei is effectively an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party whose founder and CEO was an engineer for the People’s Liberation Army. It’s a decisive action to protect U.S. interests and enforce our laws.”
• Huawei has pushed back against those insinuations, arguing that the company does not work alongside the Chinese government and is not a threat to US national security.
• Last month, authorities in Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s president, at the request of US authorities. Allegedly, Wanzhou misled banks on the relationship Huawei had with Iran, which would violate US sanctions.

(International)( source: – Deccan chronicle, www.theverge.com)