While the charge hasn't officially been brought yet, it would mark yet another major black eye for Huawei. Early in December, Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng was arrested in Canada at the behest of the US government; the charge is that she violated sanctions against Iran. While there has been significant conflict between the Chinese company and the US government in recent months, relationships have been frosty ever since 2012, when the US called it a national security threat. Since then the government has essentially blocked companies from using Huawei's networking equipment, and US government employees were recently banned from using Huawei smartphones.

Huawei has long denied the claims that it is spying on behalf of the Chinese government, says it operates independently of the government and that it follows the law in all countries where it operates. But if the Justice Department brings formal charges, we should finally know a bit more about what evidence the US has about Huawei's supposed wrongdoings and its ties to the Chinese government.