Huawei Technologies is making a Hail Mary bid to undo a US law that prohibits federal agencies and contractors from buying or using the Chinese telecom giant’s equipment because of the alleged risk of “cyber exploitation” by China.

Lawyers for Huawei are due in federal court Thursday to convince a judge that the law is an unconstitutional attempt by Congress to drive the company out of the country by imposing a “death penalty” over alleged past misdeeds and associations with the Chinese government.

…

If Huawei prevails and gets the ban overturned, it may have ramifications for the US-China trade war. While the Trump administration has given mixed messages on whether its security concerns about Huawei could be addressed as part of a trade deal, the sanctions against the company provide the US with leverage in the trade talks, said Alan Sykes, a law professor at Stanford University.

“At times it has sounded like Trump is willing to trade on the sanctions,” Mr Sykes said in a phone interview. “If this somehow goes away, then the opportunity to trade it will also go away.”