Huawei goes on trial in US for racketeering after nearly decade of litigation
Chinese tech giant accused of engineering a racketeering conspiracy to steal American technology and unfairly gain an industry advantage
The Shenzhen-based company has pleaded not guilty to all 14 counts, including bank fraud, wire fraud, trade secret theft, and racketeering, with the alleged criminal activity dating back to 1999.
Jury selection began on Tuesday, local time, with US District Judge Ann M. Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York instructing potential jurors to strive to be as “fair and impartial” as possible.
“China and the Communist Party … are not on trial,” she said, also noting that the ongoing US-Iran conflict should not influence jurors’ judgment.
Huawei said in a statement that the US government’s “overarching narrative is demonstrably false” and that the company’s recent successes, including US$126 billion in global sales revenue last year, its best performance in nearly five years, were achieved through its own research and development efforts.
