US court asked to drop Huawei case ahead of 2026 trial
Huawei has urged a US judge to drop several charges of technology theft and bank fraud, criticising the Justice Department’s ‘ill-founded’ China Initiative.

Huawei Technologies has called on a US judge to dismiss most of the federal charges accusing the company of conspiring to steal technology secrets from American firms and misleading banks about its business dealings in Iran. In a court filing in Brooklyn, Huawei described the accusations as part of the Department of Justice’s ‘ill-founded’ China Initiative, aimed at prosecuting Chinese entities. The company argued there is no substantial evidence of a conspiracy and that several charges relate to actions outside the United States.
The telecommunications giant contended that the bank fraud allegations rely on a ‘right to control’ theory of fraud, which the US Supreme Court invalidated in a separate case last year. Huawei, which operates globally from its base in Shenzhen with around 207,000 employees, has pleaded not guilty. A trial is set for January 2026. A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office declined to comment, and Huawei’s legal team did not respond to requests for remarks.
The case dates back to 2018 and led to the high-profile detention in Canada of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Although charges against her were dropped in 2022, the controversy remains a significant chapter in US-China tensions. The China Initiative, under which Huawei was prosecuted, was initiated during Donald Trump’s presidency to curb alleged intellectual property theft by Beijing but was terminated by the Biden administration in 2022 following criticism of racial profiling and the negative impact on research.