When Huawei’s defence opened in New York’s Eastern District Court on Wednesday, lawyer Douglas Axel called Yang Chaobin, a senior company executive and board member, as the first witness.
Yang told the court that he helped develop Huawei’s “SingleRAN” technology in 2008. SingleRAN, or single radio access network, allows mobile network operators to run multiple radio access technologies on one unified hardware platform.
“I would like to say this was one of the proudest moments in my Huawei career,” Yang said.
The testimony introduced Huawei’s answer to a prosecution case that had run for nearly seven weeks. The government called 61 witnesses before wrapping up on Wednesday morning.
Huawei has pleaded not guilty to 14 criminal counts, including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and trade secret theft, in a case spanning more than two decades. The charges concern material related to T-Mobile’s “Tappy” smartphone-testing robot, while prosecutors have also alleged that Huawei violated US sanctions against Iran.
The company’s defence is placing its record of technological development before the court. Huawei is worth some US$200 billion by some estimates and has 210,000 full-time employees worldwide. It devotes billions of US dollars and 110,000 employees to research and development.
The court has also allowed the government to use evidence concerning Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. District Judge Ann Donnelly permitted the introduction of admissions Meng made in 2021, after she had been detained for nearly three years in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Meng acknowledged making misleading statements in 2013 to an HSBC executive about the links between Huawei and Skycom, an affiliated company operating in Iran.
Huawei’s defence has now begun, with Yang’s account of SingleRAN providing its first response to the government’s allegations.
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