Huawei’s Secret Ally in the US-China Tech War: A DC Nonprofit

When Optica Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Rogan traveled to China in November, the prestigious US scientific society she runs promoted the trip internally and on social media. But it omitted a key stop: her visit to Huawei Technologies Co.’s headquarters, according to communications and documents reviewed by Bloomberg News.

By April, Rogan’s under-the-radar meetings at Huawei had become part of a whistleblower complaint about her nonprofit’s growing partnership with a Chinese telecommunications giant that’s in the crosshairs of US national-security officials.

A review of internal Optica corporate records shows the alliance ran far deeper than publicly known, blossoming over ...