A United States federal judge has ruled that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd must stand trial on a series of criminal charges, including trade secret theft, racketeering, and bank fraud.
The ruling, delivered on 1 July 2025 by Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York, clears the way for a trial scheduled to begin in May 2026.
In her 52-page decision, Judge Donnelly rejected Huawei’s motion to dismiss 13 of the 16 counts contained in the indictment. The court found that federal prosecutors had presented sufficient grounds to allege that Huawei engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity in pursuit of global expansion, misappropriated proprietary technologies from six US companies, and misled banks about the nature of its business dealings in Iran.
Central to the case are allegations that Huawei concealed its relationship with Skycom Tech Co Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company that prosecutors argue was effectively operating as Huawei’s Iranian subsidiary. Prosecutors claim that Skycom facilitated more than $100 million in financial transactions through the US banking system in violation of American sanctions against Iran.
“The prosecutors have satisfactorily alleged that Skycom operated as Huawei’s Iranian subsidiary and ultimately stood to benefit, in a roundabout way, from these financial activities,” Donnelly stated in her ruling.
Huawei has entered a not guilty plea and maintains that the prosecution is politically motivated, describing itself as “a prosecutorial target in search of a crime”. The company’s legal team had sought to dismiss the bulk of the charges on grounds of insufficient evidence, but the judge ruled that the case must proceed to trial.
The case, formally listed as United States v. Huawei Technologies Co et al, originated in 2018 during the first term of President Donald Trump. That year also saw the launch of the US Department of Justice’s “China Initiative”, a policy aimed at curbing perceived theft of US intellectual property by Chinese entities. The initiative was discontinued in 2022 under President Joe Biden, following criticism that it fostered racial profiling and discouraged legitimate academic collaboration.
The indictment also previously included Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei. Meng was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on a US extradition request and remained under house arrest in Canada for nearly three years. Following a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities, Meng returned to China in September 2021. The charges against her were formally dismissed in 2022.
Since 2019, Huawei has been subject to a series of US sanctions and export restrictions, with Washington citing national security concerns and alleging that the firm’s equipment could be used for espionage purposes by the Chinese state. Huawei has consistently denied any links to intelligence services and maintains that it poses no threat to foreign networks.
Based in Shenzhen, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and employs approximately 208,000 staff globally. The company’s business spans telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and enterprise solutions. In recent years, however, its international growth has been constrained by ongoing restrictions on its access to advanced semiconductors and US-origin technology.
The upcoming trial, scheduled to commence on 4 May 2026, is expected to last several months.
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