[ad_1]
The New York Times learned that Chinese police arrested five former Huawei employees in December 2018 due to discussions in a group chat via the WeChat app on charges that the company had violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Although the former employees did not provide concrete evidence of the violations, only a hint of evidence and discussions with foreign journalists appeared to be sufficient to arrest.
The arrest of a former employee, Li Hongyuan, sparked outrage among Chinese residents concerned that the employee had been fired over his wage lawsuit, however, Huawei later said the arrest was not due to a labor dispute and was related with inappropriate behavior. Legal suspicion.
The new allegations indicate that Huawei was watching conversations from previous employees, and was also ready to take advantage of the protection of the authorities to silence critics, and Li Hongyuan said that the police arrested him to prevent him from speaking publicly about Huawei’s activities in Iran.
Huawei, the world’s largest maker of communications equipment and the leading smartphone brand, is battling fraud allegations from the US government. USA To circumvent sanctions against Iran, but the Canadian government has arrested the company’s chief financial officer, the daughter of its founder, as part of the case.
More than a year ago, the Chinese company became the target of an intense campaign by the Trump administration, and the Justice Department accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and lying about its business in Iran, while the company denies having misbehaved, and US officials say the company is subject to the Chinese state, which the company also denies. .
The company found itself at the center of a trade dispute between China and the United States, which ultimately led to its accusation of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, and the New York Times report shows how willing the Chinese authorities are to protect them because of its massive presence in China, with a dominance of the mobile market and large areas of the country’s technology industry.
Notably, Huawei’s sales to Iran are not all illegal, but only those that include US-origin goods, technology, or services that violate sanctions, and the company said its sales in Iran were for commercial civil use and did not violate the penalties.
[ad_2]
