Former Engineer Tells Huawei Jury a Colleague Boasted of Taking Code Used in Amazon’s Cloud Platform

The testimony supplies prosecutors with an insider account from Huawei’s American research subsidiary. Huawei argues that Meng’s sworn statement was negotiated—not a confession.

Meng walks from her Vancouver mansion to a proceeding in Vancouver during her Canadian detention.

BROOKLYN, New York — A former engineer at Huawei’s American research subsidiary testified Thursday that she was shocked when a colleague allegedly boasted of co-opting patented code used in Amazon’s cloud-computing platform, offering prosecutors an early insider account in the Chinese telecommunications giant’s racketeering trial.

Meanwhile, Huawei's lawyers argued that jurors should not treat the sworn statement of Meng Wanzhou—the Huawei executive who avoided extradition from Canada and any appearance in this Brooklyn courtroom—as a confession.

Meng was the target of an intensive Chinese intelligence and coercion campaign in Canada that sought to prevent her extradition and the prospect that she could cooperate with U.S. investigators, according to The Bureau’s exclusive reporting on a classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service assessment.

Beijing ultimately obtained the outcome it sought: Meng was not extradited, the Canadian proceeding ended and she returned to China in September 2021.