When Optica Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Rogan traveled to China in November, the prestigious U.S. 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 U.S. national-security officials.

A review of internal Optica corporate records shows the alliance ran far deeper than publicly known, blossoming over decades even as U.S.-China tensions over technology soared.

The findings expand on a Bloomberg News report in May that Huawei was secretly sponsoring a research competition run by Optica's foundation. That arrangement enabled Huawei to fund millions of dollars worth of cutting-edge studies at U.S. universities without their knowledge, including at schools that ban their researchers from taking Huawei money.

The revelations prompted a congressional investigation and a decision by Washington-based Optica to return the funds Huawei had committed to the program and to remove the company's representation on the panel of judges.

Scrutiny over the funding arrangement has dealt a blow to a partnership that effectively helped Huawei preserve access to a pipeline of top-notch U.S. scientists despite its pariah status in Washington. For example, according to Bloomberg's latest findings, at least three of the six U.S. researchers Huawei secretly sponsored through the Optica competition won Pentagon funding around the same time.

An April 4 complaint, filed to Optica's general counsel by an employee citing the group's whistleblower policy, flagged Rogan's "undisclosed" visit to Huawei's headquarters and raised concerns about the company's role in choosing which scientists would receive funding through the competition. The whistleblower also alleged the contest risked compromising U.S.-government-funded work, including efforts backed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

"I believe that research that is funded by DARPA and other agencies and patents to which the U.S. government has certain rights have been willfully exported to Huawei and therefore the Chinese government" through the competition, the complaint says, without elaborating on that allegation.

An Optica spokesman said that claim is "simply incorrect" and that "no research has ever been provided by or thru Optica to Huawei or any government entity." In an internal communication to staff on June 3, Rogan said the group was "actively reviewing our policies to ensure both best practices and maximum transparency."

A Huawei spokesman said in a statement that the company funded the Optica-branded research competition in order to "motivate young scientists, encourage academic exchange, and promote global knowledge sharing." He didn't address questions about Bloomberg's new findings.

Headquarters Visit

For Optica, a century-old organization that publishes influential scientific journals, the tie-up with a Chinese industrial champion helped it maintain a foothold in a crucial region even as China's rivalry with the U.S. intensified. The society has been increasing its focus on China, its second-largest market after the U.S. and one where it sees untapped potential.

Yet it's a delicate dance, as research by Optica's 24,000 individual members applies to sensitive areas such as semiconductors—a key battleground in the U.S.-China tech competition, and one where Huawei is a major player.

Rogan's visit to Huawei headquarters came just months after the company's release in August of a new smartphone featuring a 7-nanometer chip whose development U.S. export controls were supposed to foil. In a provocative move, Huawei unveiled the breakthrough while the U.S. official in charge of those controls, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, was visiting China.

The Optica spokesman said the group didn't publicize Rogan's visit because it was "an informal courtesy stop at the end of a two-week trip." He added that Rogan had "already sent two internal communications about trip highlights and a third felt excessive at the time."

Rogan, an accountant who has been the group's CEO since 2002 after previously serving as assistant controller of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, has repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with Optica allowing Huawei to fund the competition. She initially told Bloomberg that some donors preferred to remain anonymous and that there was nothing unusual about the practice.

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