In the past year, hundreds of Huawei Technologies Co.’s U.S.-based employees watched as Washington labeled the Chinese company a national-security threat and took steps to try to banish its products both in the U.S. and abroad.

That campaign—and the recent arrest of Huawei’s finance chief—has spawned job insecurity and uncomfortable party chatter. “When people find out I work at Huawei, the first thing they ask is, ’Are you reading the stories? Are you concerned about your job?’,” said an employee who fielded such questions at a social gathering Saturday, a week after Canada arrested Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the U.S. over fraud allegations. “The answer is yes.”

The maker of telecommunications equipment and smartphones says it employs about 1,500 people in the U.S. While many are Chinese citizens, the company says about 75% of them were hired locally in the U.S. They are spread around 18 sites, including its North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, a flagship research-and-development facility in Santa Clara, Calif., and offices in Chicago, San Diego and New Jersey.

Huawei, which is based in Shenzhen, China, says it also contributes to the U.S. economy in other ways. A spokesman said it is buying about $10 billion of components from American companies this year. Huawei also spends about $8 million annually in research-and-collaboration partnerships with more than 50 U.S. universities, including top institutes—a program that some Congress members are questioning.