Mud slung at Huawei sticks to Washington

At a news conference, acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said that two affiliates of Huawei had been indicted on 10 federal crimes related to accusations that Huawei stole technology from T-Mobile, and that Huawei, its chief financial officer, an affiliate in Iran and one of its subsidiaries in the US had been indicted on 13 charges related to allegations that Huawei committed financial fraud by violating US sanctions against doing business with Iran.

That these charges are politically motivated should be evident from the extrajudicial nature of the sanctions-busting allegations - which is indicative of the ingrained US hostility toward Iran - and the fact the T-Mobile technology in question, robotic technology that tests the durability of smartphones, was proudly being displayed on YouTube before the Huawei employees allegedly stole it.

The fact that Apple, Facebook and Uber, among others, have been accused of stealing trade secrets, as well as a steady stream of cases where people leave a company with its know-how and sell that knowledge to competitors, shows how cut and thrust the technology competition is.