Belgium’s intelligence agency is investigating tech giant Huawei as fears of Chinese espionage grow around the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to confidential documents cited by POLITICO and three people with knowledge of the matter.

In recent months, the Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) has asked former members of the company’s lobbying department in the “heart” of Brussels to contact its management. Security officials are looking into how China could use non-state actors, including senior officials from Huawei’s lobbying arm in Brussels, to advance the interests of the Chinese state and its Communist Party in Europe, sources told Politico on condition of anonymity. anonymity status.

The review of Huawei’s activity in the EU comes at a time when Western security agencies are sounding the alarm about companies linked to China.

British, Dutch, Belgian, Czech, Scandinavian and EU officials have been ordered not to use the TikTok app on work phones because there are concerns that Chinese security laws are forcing Chinese tech companies to hand over data to government agencies.

The investigations come amid growing evidence of foreign influence in EU decision-making, a phenomenon also exposed in the recent Qatargate scandal, when Qatar tried to influence Brussels.

The Belgian security services have been tasked with monitoring operations carried out by foreign authorities around EU institutions.

The Belgian State Security Service declined to comment when asked about intelligence gathering. A spokesman for Huawei said the company was unaware that employees in the company’s Brussels office had been questioned by intelligence agencies.

Ties with China

Belgian intelligence officials want to establish whether there are direct links between China and Huawei’s Brussels office, sources told Politico. Of particular interest, they say, have Huawei representatives who may have previously held positions in Brussels institutions with access to a network of contacts in the EU.

Westerners are concerned that the Chinese government could use or pressure the company to gain access to critical Western data. It remains to be seen how easy it will be for Beijing to infiltrate the tech giant.

Huawei’s lobbying offices in the EU – one located between the European Parliament, European Commission and Council buildings, and the other a “cybersecurity transparency center” next to the US embassy – have been powerful lobbyists in the past decade.

According to the latest corporate reports, Huawei is among the 30 most wasteful companies. money for EU lobbying in Brussels, with a declared maximum expenditure of 2.25 million euros per year. In 2018, at the beginning of the geopolitical storm that hit the company, it was among the top ten companies spending the most money on lobbying in Brussels.

Huawei insists that it remains independent from the Chinese state. “Huawei is a commercial enterprise,” the spokesperson said. When asked if the company verifies which of its employees are members of the Chinese Communist Party, the spokesman replied, “We do not question or interfere with employees’ political or religious beliefs. We treat all employees equally, regardless of race, gender, social status, disability, religion or anything else.”

A key concern in recent years is that Huawei, based in China, is exposed to The Intelligence Act of 2017, which requires companies to “support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”and also to “protect the secrets of the national intelligence agencies that they have become aware of.”

When asked how it handles Chinese government data transfer requests, a Huawei spokesperson referred to the company’s FAQ page on the matter, which states: “Huawei has never received such a request, and we would categorically refuse to comply if we received such a request.. Huawei is an independent company that only works to serve its customers. We will never compromise or harm any country, organization or individual, especially when it comes to cybersecurity and user privacy.”

Belgium – although a small market – is considered strategically important to Western allies due to the presence of EU institutions and NATO headquarters.

In 2020, the Belgian National Security Council imposed restrictions on Huawei in critical parts of 5G networks.

In 2022, the Belgian State Security Agency published a report with its findings on the activities of China-backed lobbyists, speaking of a “grey area between lobbying, interference, political influence, espionage, financial blackmail and disinformation campaigns.”

In response, the Chinese embassy in Belgium accused the intelligence agencies of “defaming the legitimate business activities of Chinese companies in Belgium, causing serious damage to their reputation and causing potential damage to their normal production and operation.”

Source: Politico