need -- the world needs infrastructure. the asian pacific region needs about $2 trillion worth of infrastructure every year to solve problems of growth and climate change and poverty. and so it's a real need and china's meeting some of that. so that will -- there's both a demand poll and supply push on this issue. but i think it will be -- the horns will be reined in a little bit, i think, in the period ahead. i don't know whether -- you have any thoughts about kind of india's view on this. it was alluded to in an earlier panel by rick. but, you know, sort of how india is viewing this and what india is doing in response. >> yeah, so i think straight out of the gate, it's fair to say that india is probably never going to endorse the belt and road initiative as we see it today. and i think this is something that we've heard from indian leadership. particularly because the belt goes through the indian ocean and through some of india's close allies, which the classic example is sri lanka and how they were, you know, impacted by

the loans they took on as part of the belt and road initiative and the indian government is also closely looking at investments in other ally countries like the maldives and also kenya. and so there is never really going to be, you know, an acknowledgment from the indian side that this is a good idea for so many of its close allies. >> and we're going to take you live to the justice department for a briefing on what is being called national security-related criminal charges related to china. live coverage now here on c-span3. >> good-looking crew. >> good afternoon, and thank you all for being here. i especially want to thank everyone on the stage from the departments of homeland security, the department of commerce, the fbi and from our u.s. attorney's offices, both in the western district of washington and the eastern district of new york. before i get into today's announcements, i want to remind

everyone that the defendants in these cases, as in every case, are innocent until proven guilty. and they deserve the due process of law. first, i am announcing that a grand jury in seattle has returned an indictment that alleges ten federal crimes by two affiliates of telecommunications corporation huawei technologies. huawei began effort to steal information about a robot that t-mobile used to test mobile phones. in an effort to build their own r robot, they violated confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements with t-mobile by secretly taking photos of the robot, measuring it, and even stealing it -- stealing a piece of it. i am also announcing today a grand jury in new york has returned an indictment alleging 13 additional crimes committed by huawei, its cfo, its

affiliate in iran and one of its subsidiaries here in the united states. the criminal activity alleged in this indictment goes back at least ten years, and goes all the way to the top of the company. as early as 2007, huawei employees allegedly began to misrepresent the company's relationship with its iranian affiliate, which is called sky com. huawei employees allegedly told banking partners that huawei had sold its ownership interest in sky com, but these claims were false. in reality, huawei had sold sky com to itself. by claiming that sky com was a separate company and not an affiliate of huawei, which it actually controlled, huawei allegedly asserted that all of its iranian business was in compliance with the american sanctions. these alleged false claims led banks to do business with the company and therefore to

unknowingly violate our laws. one bank facilitated more than $100 million worth of sky com transactions through the united states in just four years. huawei allegedly lied about other relationships, as well. in 2017 when one bank decided to terminate its global banking relationship with huawei over a concern about risk, the company allegedly told other banks that huawei was distancing itself from the bank. not the other way around. huawei allegedly did this in an attempt to, among other things, manipulate those other banks into expanding and maintaining their banking relationships with huawei. there are additional troubling allegations in the indictment, as well. including that huawei lied to the federal government and attempted to obstruct justice by concealing and destroying evidence, and by moving potential government witnesses back to china.

as has been widely reported, in december 2018, canadian authorities arrested huawei's cfo in vancouver. in compliance with our request for her provisional arrest, pursuant to our extradition treaty with canada. the united states is currently seeking her extradition. we are deeply grateful to the government of canada for its assistance and its steadfast commitment to the rule of law. i want to repeat that these charges in today's indictments are only allegations. and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. and i want to thank everyone who made these indictments possible. especially the agencies represented behind me and to all of the new york, dallas and seattle law enforcement agents who investigated these cases. they are continuing their work to investigate these matters. i also want to thank our attorneys in the criminal division's money laundering and asset recovery section, the national security division's

counterintelligence export control section, and our office of international affairs and our ausas in the eastern district of new york and the western district of washington. the cases we are announcing today have truly been a team effort across multiple u.s. cabinet agencies and across multiple divisions and u.s. attorneys' offices. here in the department of justice. for more than a year, the agencies represented behind me followed the evidence wherever it led. they have done great work already, and i am confident this team is going to finish the job and bring these cases to a successful conclusion. in a few moments, u.s. attorney donahue and first assistant hayes will provide more details on today's indictments. but let me just say two more things. first, when a bank's customers lie to it about their sanctions-related business, that exposes banks to the risk of violating the law, especially when they provide -- continue to

provide those bad actors access to our u.s. financial system. and second, as i told high-level chinese law enforcement officials in august when i visited their country, we need more law enforcement cooperation with china. china should be concerned about criminal activities by chinese companies and china should take action. we are proud that the united states has the strongest economy in the world. i believe that it's no small part due to our respect for the rule of law. criminals and bad actors could be certain that they will not get away with criminal activity. but those who do business in the united states can also be certain that department of justice will protect them from criminals, no matter how powerful or influential they are. i think we have shown that today, and we will show that as these cases move forward. i now want to introduce secretary nielsen to address you. secretary? >> thank you. >> well, good afternoon.

thank you all for being here. i'm going to keep my remarks quite short. but i did want to just mention that one of the missions of the department of homeland security is to prevent malicious actors from manipulating our financial system to harm our nation's security. we also ensure that legitimate economic activity is not exploited by our adversaries. i'd like to start as the attorney general did by thanking our federal partners, including those behind me today. for the work they have put into this case and for their commitment to upholding u.s. law. something that this administration continues to tirelessly do. almost 18 months ago, i.c.e., homeland security investigations special agents working as part of the eldorado task force in new york with our other federal partners were made aware of potential fraudulent activity by huawei and subsidiaries. the alleged fraudulent financial schemes used by huawei and its chief financial officer were not just illegal, but detrimental to the security of the united states. they willfully conducted

millions of dollars in transactions that were in direct violation of the iranian transactions and sanctions regulations. and we will not as a country tolerate efforts to circumvent u.s. sanctions to support an odious regime that sponsors terror and threatens the united states and our allies. in spite of the attempts on the part of the defendants to hide their criminal activity and impede the investigation once they became away of it, hsi conducted an exhaustive international financial investigation that used a broad array of investigative techniques to follow the money that allowed agents to document huawei's illegal conduct. the ability to follow the money is one of the hall marks of hsi's transnational criminal investigative work. in fact, the el dorado task force itself has over 25 years of experience in complex financial investigations. ensuring our nation's laws are upheld, take full force of all of our federal, state and local partners, we greatly appreciate their partnership. i would also like to thank the great men and women of i.c.e.,

homeland security investigations for their exceptional work on this case, and for what they do every day to protect our homeland. and with that, i'd like to turn it over now to secretary ross. thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon. thank you, attorney general whitacre, for hosting us today. and thank you to all of our interagency partners at justice, the fbi and dhs, for your outstanding work on this case. the trump administration continues to be tougher on those who violate our sanctions and our export control laws than any administration in history. as secretary, one of my very first actions was to punish zte for its violations, and we continue to monitor them more

strictly than any other company in our history. for years, chinese firms have broken our export laws and undermined sanctions, often using u.s. financial systems to facilitate their illegal activities. this will end. the men and women of our bureau of industry and security have been at the forefront of our efforts, and i commend them again for their work. despite their small size, just 400 or so hard-working public servants, they do an amazing job helping to keep america safe from those who would do us harm. but these doja-led indictments also show what our united states government can do when we combine our authorities and bring them to bear against bad

actors. i'm very proud to stand side by side with our partners. together we are once again putting the world on notice that we will do everything in our power to stop those that disregard u.s. law. too many companies pursue profits by whatever means necessary. lying, cheating and stealing are not suitable corporate growth strategies. to be clear, these indictments are law enforcement actions, and are wholly separate from our trade negotiations with china. commerce will continue to work with our interagency partners to protect u.s. national security interests. we will ensure our sanctions and export control laws are enforced and violators brought to justice. thank you.

>> good afternoon. the charges unsealed today are the result of years of investigative work by the fbi and our law enforcement partners. both sets of charges expose huawei's brazen and persistent actions to exploit american companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace. as you can tell from the number and magnitude of the charges, huawei and its senior executives repeatedly refuse to respect u.s. law and standard international business practices. huawei also intentionally and systematically sought to steal valuable intellectual property from an american company. so we could circumvent hard-earned, time-consuming research and gain an unfair

market advantage. in pursuit of their commercial ambitions, huawei relied on dishonest business practices that contradict the very economic principles that have allowed american companies and the united states to thrive. and there is no place, none, for this kind of criminal behavior in our country or any other committed to the rule of law. the prosperity that drives our economic security is inherently linked to our national security. and the immense influence that the chinese government holds over chinese corporations like huawei represents a threat to both. as americans, we should all be concerned about the potential for any company beholden to a foreign government, especially one that doesn't share our values to burrow into the american telecommunications

market. that kind of access could give a foreign government the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, to conduct undetected espionage or exert pressure or control. and these cases make clear that as a country, we have to carefully consider the risks that companies like huawei pose if we're going to allow them into our telecommunications infrastructure. today's charges serve as a warning that the fbi does not and will not tolerate businesses that violate our laws, obstruct our justice and jeopardize our national security. we will not stand idly by while any entity, whether it's a foreign government or corporation, seeks to criminally or unfairly undermine our country's place in the world. this announcement would not have been possible without the

dedication and hard work of scores of fbi personnel in our counterintelligence and criminal investigative divisions, in our new york, dallas and seattle field offices. and i'm proud of their hard work, rooting out pervasive criminal behavior by huawei and its senior executives. like the attorney general, i'd also like to thank our law enforcement partners in canada for their continued and invaluable assistance to the united states in law enforcement matters like this one. and lastly, i'd like to extend our gratitude to our partners at the departments of commerce and homeland security for their support in our broader efforts to defend our economic and national security. thank you. >> as the attorney general indicated a few moments ago, earlier today, a 13-count

indictment was partially unsealed in the eastern district of new york. the unsealed indictment charges four defendants. first, huawei technologies company, limited. the chief operating company of the huawei conglomerate. second, huawei device usa. the main u.s. subsidiary of huawei. third, sky com tech company, limited. a hong kong company operating in iran that was a de facto subsidiary of huawei. and fourth, wong jaomong, board member of huawei and former board member of sky com. as you're probably aware, huawei is the world's largest telecommunications company, headquartered in the people's republic of china. the defendants are various charged with conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, violations of the international emergency economic powers act, money laundering and obstruction of

justice. as with all defendants in the american criminal justice system, they are presumed not guilty. the indictment unsealed today is the result of a long-term investigation of huawei by the u.s. attorney's attorney's offi eastern district of new york, the doj's criminal division, the doj's national security division and our law enforcement partners from the fbi, hsi, dod and the treasury and commerce departments. the investigation is ongoing. in sum, the charges in this case in new york relate to a long running scheme by huawei, its cfo and other executives and employees to deceive global financial institutions and the united states government about huawei's business activities in iran. the scheme was designed to allow iran to evade sanctions imposed by the united states and to allow huawei to profit from those evasions.

beginning in 2007, huawei employees misrepresented huawei's relationship to sky com, a de facto subsidiary operating in iran. over the course of years, huawei through its executives and others, repeatedly claimed to the u.s. government officials in various banks that the company, its subsidiaries and partners operated in accordance with u.s. sanctions in export laws and in accordance with eu and un sanctions. as charged in the indictment, those claims were false. similar wlily, employees made false statements to both the fbi and the united states congress. as part of huawei's schemes, ms. mong personally made statements to huawei's major banking partners about the company's operations in iran. as alleged in the indictment, those statements were false. it is important to understand

that ms. mong has been charged based upon her own personal conduct and not because of actions or misconduct by other huawei employees. the eastern district of new york, like the entire justice department, is committed to the rule of law. on a daily basis we hold american companies and their executives accountable for violations of the law. we should and will do the same with foreign companies and their executives no matter how well connected those companies may be. i want to thank the ausa's in my office, david, kaitlyn and sarah, as well as our colleagues in the national security and criminal divisions here in washington and our partners in the fbi, hsi, dod and the treasury and commerce departments for their extraordinary and continuing efforts in this case. thank you.

good afternoon. let me thank the acting attorney general and everyone behind me for the collective work here today. as you heard from the attorney general, this afternoon in the western district of washington a ten-count indictment was unsealed charging trade theft, charging wire fraud, obstruction of justice and forfeiture. the indictment in the western district of washington reveals just how determined huawei was to steal t mobile's trade secrets, how clearly huawei knew that what it was doing was wrong, and just how far huawei was willing to go to get the technology it wanted. as set forth in the indictment, our evidence includes numerous e-mails between huawei usa and huawei china over a period of

months showing a determined and un re lerelenting effort to obt mobile technology, in this case a robot nicknamed tappy that t mobile used to test mobile phones to ensure they met expectations in the marketplace. as alleged in the indictment, the e-mails show that huawei wanted to build its own robot, and rather than engineer its own device, it decided to steal t mobile's technology. what do we allege that huawei did? t mobile had given huawei employees limited access to tappy to test huawei's phones, but only subject to agreements strictly prohibiting any conduct to obtain tappy technology. the e-mails clearly show a determined huawei doing

everything it could to get what it was told it could not have. huawei entities snuck into the tappy lab with folks who are not authorized to be there. huawei entities directed employees to take photographs, take measurements, and take other protected information without permission. and finally, when all this still did not get them what they were looking for, they tried to steal tappy's robotic arm in order for engineers in china to replicate it. to make matters worse, when confronted, huawei obstructed justice by preparing a report claiming to be an investigation of rogue employees when huawei clearly knew that the thefts were part of an organized effort by the company. in fact, as the indictment details, this was the way huawei

operated. this was huawei's m.o. during the time period of the alleged crimes, huawei announced a bonus program for its employees worldwide, that it would pay cash to employees for stealing confidential information from competitors. and yet, and very tellingly, within days of this offer, huawei usa sent an e-mail to its employees acknowledging this conduct would be illegal in the united states. let me end by emphasizing as the attorney general did as well, our indictment contains allegations. huawei, like every defendant in a criminal case, has the right to due process including a trial. we look forward to proving our case beyond a reasonable doubt and holding huawei accountable

for its actions. let me finish just by thanking as well not only the fbi and the other law enforcement agencies that were involved in this work but the ausa's in my office, todd greenberg and tom woods and a number of other folks who supported them on this case as we got the indictment. thank you very much. appreciate all those remarks and i just want to again thank all of our law enforcement partners and all the cabinet secretaries and others, divisions at the department of justice, u.s. attorney's office for great work, and as we all know, once a company or an individual is indicted, that's when the work really begins and the trial lawyers get to do their things. i'll turn it over to kerry to direct traffic here. >> if they're convicted of all these charges, should this company be allowed to operate in the u.s. market? and then i have a followup question on a different topic

for the fbi director. >> sure. i think the best people to answer that are the u.s. attorneys as to what the potential ramifications of this behavior is, but let me start by saying the united states has a very well defined process for allowing people to -- that are convicted of crimes to continue to participate in our economy. i think we're well before that and other departments would have direct input. i don't know if secretary roth, if you have any additional comments on that. >> no, we don't comment on pending investigations. >> director, you gave a very passionate speech to the fbi personnel about the shutdown in terms of how it impacted. what message are you going to send to the white house and to congress about the effect of the impact of the shutdown and how you're going to work hard to

prevent another one? >> for now i'm just very happy that all 37,000 of the great men and women of the fbi are back at work and going to get paid this week, which is what's best for everybody. i'll just leave it at that for now. >> mr. whittaker, how are huawei's actions undermining u.s. security? i understand the trait secrets argument but what about the sanctions argument and when you put them all together is it clear that this is just rogue employees or is this the way the company does business? >> we have allegations in two indictments that were unsealed today, both in the eastern district of new york and the western district of washington. the behavior in both those cases allege more than just rogue employees. it alleges corporate sponsored behaviors that were, as the first assistant from the western district of washington pointed are, are alleged to have

directed corporate policy. so i think these are very serious actions by a company that appears to be using corporate espionage and sanctions violation to not only enhance potentially their bottom line but also to compete in the world economy, and this is something that the united states will not stand for and it's just -- we're going to continue to investigate and prosecute these types of cases because ultimately it undermines the national security and the economic security of our country. >> first question on china and then a followup on a separate if i could. we've been told today that this was a organized long-term effort by the huawei executives. could any of it have happened without the blessing of the chinese come ymunist government? >> director ray, i think you're happy to speak more about the connection between the company and the state?

>> as the acting attorney general said, there's no conduct alleged in the indictment about the chinese government. i will say though that it is public record that under chinese cyber security law, chinese companies like huawei are required to provide essentially access upon demand with little to no process to challenge that so that's why it creates the national security implications that we're concerned about. >> i just have a followup for a.g. whittaker. republicans have complained that other witnesses in the russia e-mail investigations have lied or misled congress. is it robert mueller's responsibility to investigate those allegations, or is it yours? >> well, fundamentally the mueller investigation has a very defined scope and so anything outside of that scope would have -- the scope would have to be enhanced to bring additional

matters to be investigated by the mueller investigation, but obviously if it's not given to that investigation by an increasing in the scope of investigation, it would be retained by the department of justice. we have -- we take very seriously lying to congress and if there are referrals made by the appropriate committees, as ordinary course for matters like this, then we would investigate that as we would anything else. >> two quick questions. one, has the justice department formally filed its extradition request form? also, the president once raised the specter of her extradition possibly playing a role in the upcoming trade talks. is that possibility now closed given the strength of this enforcement action? >> we, in talking to u.s. attorney donohue, we plan to file our formal extradition request and all the necessary documentation under the

extradition treaty in the appropriate time frame which i think is tomorrow so we expect to comply with that. what was your second question? >> the president raised the idea that the extradition could be used in the trade talks that are forthcoming. is that possibility closed given this enforcement action? >> the u.s. department of justice does its investigations and its charging decisions independent from the white house, and we pursued this when the evidence and the facts caused us to seek an indictment from the grand jury and the grand jury returned an indictment. >> you say that you filed this when the facts had you seek an indictment but huawei has been a concern for a decade. tappy was dismembered six years ago. >> do you know how sad that statement was, that tappy was dismembered. >> it's a serious question. why has it taken the justice department so long to pursue a

case against huawei? perhaps t mobile should have known better than to allow huawei engineers into their factories. >> again, we conducted the investigation and maybe the first assistant from the western district of washington wants to add some additional information as to when the investigation started. but fundamentally, we -- the way the department of justice works is we predicate an investigat n investigation. once the investigation is predicated, we pursue all the means of investigation we have, whether it's search warrants, other investigative interviews, other investigative manners and we do these things as an ordinary course of business. you know, one of the things that i think was emphasized but needs to be re-emphasized is these two ska cases, while we are announcing them today and they concern the same company and different behaviors by the same company, are department of justice actions. we do our cases independent from the federal government at large because that's the way the

criminal system has to be. there's kind of a tried and true system and regular order that we follow at the department of justice and i think anybody trying to connect dots otherwise are just looking for things that aren't there because this is just the way we do our business every day. >> before you came into your current role, you were publicly very critical of the special counsel investigation. now since you have received your briefings, is there anything you've seen or read that gives you concern about special counsel robert mueller or his investigation? >> i've been fully briefed on the investigation and i look forward to director mueller delivering the final report, and i really am not going to talk about an open and ongoing investigation otherwise. the statements that i made as a private citizen only with publicly available information and i am comfortable that the decisions that were made are going to be reviewed either

through the various means we have but right now the investigation is, i think, close to being completed and i hope that we can get the report from director mueller as soon as possible. >> that's all we have time for today. >> thank you all. this week on the communicators, consumer technology association president gary shapiro on the major issues facing the $398 billion technology industry in the u.s. >> because i also see where the future is going with technology. like we know robotics will be here, artificial intelligence,

drones, self-driving cars, individual oriented medical treatments, certainly biotech in a way we've never experienced before, block chain technology. all these are coming so how do you succeed as a ninja, as someone who's flexible knowing that part of the future is not clear but part of it is totally clear. how do you benefit from that whether you're a government, a business or an individual. >> join us tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. tomorrow morning here on c-span3, cia director gina haspel, national intelligence director dan coats, and fbi director christopher wray will testify before the senate intelligence committee on threats to the united states. that starts at 9:30 a.m. eastern live here on c-span3. the carnegie endowment for international peace a