{"text":[[{"start":12.96,"text":"Within the Chinese technology company Huawei was a team of staff with an ambiguous-sounding name, the “competition management group”, according to US prosecutors."}],[{"start":23.68,"text":"They say its purpose was to hand out monthly bonuses to employees who stole the most valuable information from competitors. Staff could submit the material over encrypted email to a special mailbox."}],[{"start":35.84,"text":"The claim is one of several at the heart of a criminal case against Huawei, the behemoth whose revenue hit $127bn last year, which was unveiled during US President Donald Trump’s first term and is now poised for trial in New York."}],[{"start":49.954,"text":"Prosecutors say Huawei operated as a racketeering enterprise whose wrongdoing ranged from misleading bankers about its business in Iran to stealing the arm of a T-Mobile robot by “surreptitiously” putting it in a laptop bag. Huawei has denied the charges, which relate to alleged activities spanning two decades, and accused the US of approaching it as “a prosecutorial target in search of a crime”."}],[{"start":72.96,"text":"The trial is expected to last months, meaning it could provide a difficult backdrop for an expected visit to Washington by China’s President Xi Jinping this month. Trump indicated during his first term that the case could become part of a negotiation with China."}],[{"start":87.92,"text":"“I would not assume Trump intervenes, but I would not assume the courtroom stays insulated from the negotiating table either,” said Craig Singleton, a US-China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies."}],[{"start":100.47,"text":"“Huawei sits at the intersection of technology competition, Iran sanctions and US-China diplomacy, which makes this an unusually consequential case.”"}],[{"start":110.24,"text":"The trial will take place in the Eastern District of New York, where prosecutors have brought several major international cases, including a now-ended fraud case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and a long-running corruption case involving officials of the international football association Fifa."}],[{"start":125.855,"text":"If convicted, Huawei could face some of the biggest-ever US corporate criminal fines, since racketeering laws allow for a fine of twice the sum generated by the offence. Huawei already faces some restrictions in the US — it was placed on the Entity List in 2019 that bars it from acquiring certain foreign technology — but a conviction could make banks wary of doing business with the company."}],[{"start":149.001,"text":"US administrations have tightened the screws on Huawei over the past decade, imposing chip-related export controls aimed at slowing its technological advance and measures that have in effect purged its equipment from the American market."}],[{"start":161.836,"text":"But Huawei’s tech empire has rapidly expanded since Washington hit it with sanctions in 2019. It is pushing beyond telecoms infrastructure into new markets such as electric vehicles and AI. It has sought to protect itself from further US restrictions by localising its supply chains and entering markets through new brands or partner companies."}],[{"start":181.52,"text":"Huawei said in court filings that, when the case was brought, Trump and administration officials “were clear that the end goal of prosecuting Huawei was to exert leverage in the United States’ trade war with China”."}],[{"start":192.88,"text":"“The government’s overarching narrative is demonstrably false,” Huawei said in a statement."}],[{"start":198.48,"text":"“Long-term investment in innovation, backed by the utmost respect for intellectual property, has been the driving force behind Huawei’s business success.”"}],[{"start":207.583,"text":"It said it has ranked among the top six companies globally for investment in research and development for nine consecutive years."}],[{"start":214.419,"text":"The US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment."}],[{"start":218.96,"text":"Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer and the daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, is not on trial but is likely to be an important character in it."}],[{"start":228.34,"text":"She was arrested in Vancouver in 2018 and released in 2021 after admitting that she misled HSBC about Huawei’s operations in Iran. Prosecutors have won permission to show jurors the document in which she made the admission, part of a deferred prosecution agreement that ended the case against her."}],[{"start":245.28,"text":"Meng’s arrest and detention in her Canadian mansion became a flashpoint in relations between the US, Canada and China. Her release coincided with that of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who had been detained in China in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest, though Chinese officials denied any connection."}],[{"start":260.685,"text":"A Department of Justice statement of facts, to which Meng agreed, says she misled the bank about an entity called Skycom, which operated mostly in Iran. She said Skycom was a “third party Huawei works with” in the sanctions-hit country, when in fact Huawei controlled it. Meng also told the bank, referred to as “financial institution 1” in the document, that Huawei had “sold all its shares in Skycom” when it had sold them to an entity Huawei controlled."}],[{"start":288.602,"text":"Huawei’s operation of Skycom meant banks provided prohibited services for Huawei’s business in Iran, according to the document. HSBC declined to comment."}],[{"start":297.384,"text":"The indictment, against four Huawei entities including two in the US, details a series of allegations. It says Huawei used code names to refer to sanctions-hit jurisdictions, with “A2” for Iran and “A9” for North Korea, and that its representatives falsely denied to banks that it was involved in “numerous” North Korea projects."}],[{"start":317.12,"text":"It says Huawei helped Iran’s government by installing surveillance equipment that was used to “monitor, identify and detain” protesters during anti-government demonstrations in 2009."}],[{"start":328.32,"text":"In 2013, it says, a Huawei employee accessed a T-Mobile laboratory — the US company is referred to as Company 5 — and “surreptitiously placed a robot arm into a laptop bag and removed the robot arm from the laboratory”. Before the arm was returned to the company, which discovered the theft, a Huawei engineer emailed photos and measurements of it to colleagues."}],[{"start":350.64,"text":"Huawei has argued that the DoJ is fusing together “categorically different alleged crimes” which do not amount to a pattern of racketeering, court filings show. It said the government was “hoping that by throwing every allegation it can come up with against a single wall . . . something from this vast, unrelated multitude will stick”. It said the trade secrets accusations related to “commonplace” disputes “that every sophisticated technology company faces in this competitive industry.”"}],[{"start":377.087,"text":"It argued that the statute of limitations has long expired for theft allegations. It said that on the sanctions charges, it did not have fair warning that it could be subject to criminal liability as a “non-US person” when its banks routed payments through the US, and that the dollar-clearing transactions did not send money to or from an Iranian bank account, or pass through one."}],[{"start":401.088,"text":"The US sanctions made Huawei a national champion in China, ushering in a surge of state support to accelerate its technology development."}],[{"start":410.035,"text":"“My sense is that Huawei has essentially given up the idea that it could have access to the American market, ever,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies."}],[{"start":423.76,"text":"Still, an adverse ruling by the New York court, especially if it led to a large fine and restitution requirement, could have significant consequences for the company. While the DoJ may struggle to seize Huawei’s assets in China, it could lay claim to any US assets such as bank accounts."}],[{"start":439.52,"text":"The case could deepen US-China tensions. “Huawei is central to . . . Beijing’s AI ambitions,” said George Chen, partner at consultancy The Asia Group."}],[{"start":449.731,"text":"“The Chinese government will see this as another politicised case, especially ahead of Xi’s visit to the US. Beijing will view this as another attempt by the US to contain China’s rise in tech.”"}],[{"start":467.64,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788757039_3507.mp3"}