U.S. to announce criminal charges related to China's Huawei - sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is set to announce criminal charges related to Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Monday, four sources told Reuters.

The U.S. government has been expected to announce charges against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, as part of an effort to extradite her from Canada, where she was arrested in December at the request of the United States.

U.S. authorities have accused Meng of misleading a global bank about Huawei's links to a company that the United States says operated as an unofficial subsidiary to conduct business in Iran in violation of sanctions against Tehran, Canadian court documents show. Meng has said that she is innocent.

Meng is currently in Vancouver, staying in one of her family's homes, as she awaits a decision from a Canadian court on whether she will be extradited to the United States.

The U.S. government is trying to prevent American companies from buying Huawei routers and switches and is pressing allies to do the same. U.S. security experts are concerned that the equipment could be used to spy on the United States.

Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, has denied that his company's products would be used by the Chinese government to spy.

There have also been reports by the Wall Street Journal and others that the Justice Department was nearing an indictment related to allegations that Huawei stole robotic technology from carrier T-Mobile US Inc to test smartphones' durability.

T-Mobile had accused Huawei of stealing the technology, called "Tappy," which mimicked human fingers and was used to test smartphones. Huawei has said that the two companies settled their disputes in 2017.

Huawei is the world's biggest telecommunications equipment maker.

The Justice Department said it would announce charges at a news conference at 4:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) in a "China-related law enforcement action."

Both the Justice Department and Huawei declined immediate comment.

The White House is preparing an executive order to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China's Huawei and ZTE. That order could come as early as next month, two officials said.

Congress is also considering anti-Huawei bills. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced bills in January that would ban the sale of U.S. chips or other components to Huawei, ZTE Corp or other Chinese telecommunications companies that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz, David Shepardson, Sarah N. Lynch, Karen Freifeld, Chris Bing and Joseph Menn; Editing by Bill Rigby)