On Thursday, the US Justice Department accused Huawei and its subsidiaries of blackmailing and plotting to steal trade secrets in a new escalation of the American legal battle against the Chinese telecom giant.

The United States first accused Huawei and its chief financial officer, Enzo Ming, in January 2019. Initial charges included money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing justice and violating sanctions.

On Thursday, the United States added new charges, and the defendant list also expanded to include four official and unofficial subsidiary companies: Huawei Device Co, Huawei Device USA, Future Technologies and Skycom Tech.

Wanzo Ming was arrested on initial charges last year in Canada, and is still struggling not to be extradited to the United States.

CFO of Huawei and Enzo Ming is detained in Canada and struggles to not be extradited to the United States (French)

New charges
Regarding the new accusations, the US Department of Justice claims that it revealed "decades of efforts by Huawei and many of its subsidiaries in both the United States and China to abuse intellectual property, including intellectual property of six US technology companies, in an attempt to grow." And operate a Huawei business. "

The ministry says the stolen information includes trade secret information and copyright-protected works, such as the source code, user guides for routers, antenna technology, and robotics testing technology.

The investigators also claim - according to the American "ZNet" website on technical affairs - that Huawei runs a rewards program to reward employees who obtain classified information from competitors.

The Ministry of Justice says Huawei's efforts have been successful, allowing the company to cut research and development costs and gain an edge over its competitors.

According to US officials, Huawei reinvested the profits it had made from the stolen information to boost its business, even in the United States.

The new charges come after the FBI revealed that it is investigating more than a thousand cases of Chinese theft of American technology.

It is reported that earlier this week, Huawei was accused of using "back doors" in order to give law enforcement agencies access to the networks they helped build and use phones around the world. Details were disclosed to the United Kingdom and Germany at the end of 2019 after the United States noticed since 2009 the arrival of operations via "4G" equipment, according to a report issued by the "Wall Street Journal," quoting US officials.

Huawei has always denied wrongdoing, and confirms its innocence of what the US government attributes to it.