The justice department unsealed criminal charges against China’s most important telecommunications company on Monday. The US justice department filed a series of criminal charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei, two of its subsidiaries, top executive Meng Wangzhou.
They are accused of misleading banks about the company’s business and violating US sanctions against Iran.
Acting attorney General Matthew Whitaker said that Huawei has been trying to steal American telecommunications technology and also lying about its relationship with its Iranian subsidiary.
The Chinese parent company claimed that it had sold its Iranian division, he said, when actually it had kept control and ownership of it.
China’s government called on Washington on Tuesday to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei following the tech giant’s indictment in the U.S. on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran.
Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, the foreign ministry said in a statement read on state-run TV news. It gave no indication whether Beijing might retaliate for the charges against Huawei, China’s first global tech brand and the biggest maker of network switching gear used by phone and internet companies.
Huawei Technologies Ltd. denied committing any of the violations cited in Monday’s indictment, the most serious escalation yet of pressure on Huawei, which has spent a decade battling U.S. accusations it is a front for Chinese spying and a security risk.