Two alleged spies from China have just recently been arrested in the US for allegedly interfering with the investigation case against Huawei. The company has been designated as a national security threat in the past, so here’s all we know about this matter.

The Department of Justice announced that it had arrested two men that are believed to be working for Chinese intelligence. These men apparently tried to hinder the US investigation into the Chinese tech giant. For those unaware, the company was placed in the US Entity list back in 2019, and faced further sanctions in months that followed. It was even cut off from Google at the start and lost its primary chip supplier, TSMC, as well by the following year.

Since then, Huawei’s smartphone operations faced a crippling blow, with its latest smartphone models launching with top end Qualcomm chipsets that do only offer 4G connectivity. From being a top smartphone maker, the brand is nowhere near the top players in the market any longer. The two Chinese spies arrested by the US are Guochum He and Zheng Wang. Both of these men are being accused of working with the Chinese government and attempting to steal files and other information from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Notably, the files being stolen were related to an “ongoing federal criminal investigation and prosecution of a global telecommunications company (Company-1) based in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) believed to be Huawei.” In the list of accusations, both men were even charged with bribing 41,000 US Dollars in Bitcoin to a US government employee, who they thought was working for the PRC. However, that governemnt employee was actually a double agent for the FBI. So now, Wang faces 20 years in prison while He may face a sentence nearly twice as long, around 40 years.

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The US Judge, Laurel Beeler, stated earlier this week that she was not inclined to reverse her decision of blocking the US Government from banning Apple and Google from offering the WeChat app through their respective US app stores.

According to a Reuters report, the US Magistrate Judge stated in a hearing that a new filing from the Justice Department will not “changes the outcome” or change her analysis. Previously, Beeler had also issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the US Commerce Department order, which would’ve taken effect in September. At the moment, the Justice Department has appealed the judge’s order to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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The ban from the Commerce Department would essentially make the WeChat app unusable in the US. Furthermore, the Justice Department has argued that Beeler’s order “permits the continued, unfettered use of WeChat, a mobile application that the Executive Branch has determined constitutes a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” On the other hand, WeChat users argued that the government sought to “implement an unprecedented ban of an entire medium of communication,” which is based on mere “speculation” and “without any evidence.”

For those unaware, the popular Chinese social media and all in one smartphone application from Tencent are recently facing issues in the US. The government is aiming on banning the application from major app stores like Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, the Chinese app is a big part of many Chinese students’ lives and is used by over 19 million active users daily.

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A report by Reuters says the U.S. Justice Department is expected to sue Google as soon as next week. The DOJ is reportedly currently urging state attorneys general to sign onto the lawsuit, the report cites three sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the lawsuit is expected to see Google the DOJ level some allegations against Google over its search engine dominance. The search engine is alleged to be looking to put rival search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing in a disadvantaged position by withholding data concerning users from its rivals. Google also has exclusive access to user preferences that they deploy to improve their adverts.

The US Department of Justice has also had its eyes on Google’s “search advertising,” the ads that get featured under a search box if a person searches for a consumer item such as a “dishwasher.” Google has sold control over this as space and even provides the tools to make those ad.

Google has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and the Justice Department has declined to comment. But according to the sources, State attorneys general are also considering whether to sign on to the federal lawsuit. A good number of them already have running investigations of several other Google businesses.

It could be recalled that the European Commission slapped Google with a €1.49 billion fine just last year for trying to kill competitors while increasing its dominance in search ads by limiting the use of rival search engines.

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