Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei on Thursday sued the United States government seeking orders from a Texas court declaring the federal government’s law curtailing its operations in the US unconstitutional.
Huawei said that it had filed a complaint at a federal court in Texas challenging the legality of Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in August which bars federal agencies and their contractors from procuring its equipment and services.
“The U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort,” Guo Ping, Huawei Rotating Chairman said. “This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming U.S. consumers. We look forward to the court’s verdict, and trust that it will benefit both Huawei and the American people,”
The Chinese telecommunications giant has been the biggest casualty of the trade tiff as the two super powers spent much of 2018 slapping each other’s goods with tariffs amounting into billions of shillings.
In January, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed criminal charges against Huawei accusing the phone maker of attempting to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile and promising bonuses to employees who collected confidential information on competitors. DOJ also accused Huawei of covertly working to thwart US sanctions on Iran.
By unsealing two cases against the phone maker, the United States alleged that the immense control that the Chinese government has over its corporations had rendered Huawei ‘a threat to the United States national security’.
The United States also worked its diplomatic capital and made Canada arrest Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Meng Wenzhou while in transit in Vancouver on December 1.
China protested the move accusing the US of blatantly targeting Chinese corporations to frustrate their business.
Ms Meng, the daughter to Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, has since fought back by suing the Canadian government accusing it of arresting her unlawfully.
In her lawsuit, the Huawei CFO alleges that Canadian authorities detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest.