US Judge Schedules Huawei Criminal Case for January 2026
The highly anticipated criminal case against Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom giant, has been scheduled for January 2026 after settlement negotiations reached an impasse. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had been engaged in discussions with Huawei, but Assistant US Attorney Alexander Solomon stated at a recent status conference that it was necessary to set a trial date due to the impasse. US District Judge Ann Donnelly, who is presiding over the case, set January 2026 as a placeholder for the trial, with prosecutors estimating that it could last four to six months.
Huawei’s lawyer has requested to split the case, seeking to separate the bank fraud charges from the allegations of trade secret theft. However, US authorities have argued that the charges are interconnected. The criminal case against Huawei began in 2018 when the company was indicted on bank fraud charges for misleading banks, including HSBC, about its business dealings in Iran, which is subject to US sanctions. In 2019, the DOJ unsealed two additional indictments against Huawei, its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, and some of its subsidiaries.
One of the indictments accuses Huawei of misleading a global bank and US authorities about its relationship with Skycom Tech, an unofficial subsidiary conducting business in Iran. The other indictment includes charges of trade secret theft, wire fraud, and obstructing justice. Prosecutors allege that Huawei stole robotic technology from T-Mobile to test smartphone durability. In 2020, more charges were added to the case, including allegations that Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets from six US technology companies and aided Iran in tracking protesters during anti-government demonstrations in 2009.
Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport at the request of the United States. US prosecutors accused her of participating in a scheme to evade US sanctions on Iran using the global banking system. In response to her arrest, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and charged them with spying. This move was widely seen as a tactic called “hostage diplomacy” employed by Beijing.
In 2021, Meng reached a deferred prosecution agreement with US prosecutors in which she admitted to misleading global institutions about Huawei’s business in Iran. However, she pleaded not guilty to charges related to bank and wire fraud. In 2022, a federal judge in New York dismissed the financial fraud charges against Meng. The case has had significant implications for Huawei, as the company was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 due to concerns over national security and human rights violations. These sanctions have severely restricted Huawei’s access to critical US technologies and have had a detrimental impact on its smartphone business.
The ongoing legal battle between Huawei and the US government has been closely watched around the world. It has highlighted the complex issues surrounding technology, national security, and international relations. As the scheduled trial date approaches in January 2026, both sides will be preparing their arguments and evidence for what is expected to be a lengthy and high-stakes legal showdown.
Cathy He, Eva Fu, and Reuters contributed to this report.
