Huawei executive involved in an espionage scandal

Internal Security Agency arrested two people upon charges of espionage for China. The two men are a former special services officer and university faculty member and an executive employed by the Polish office of Huawei Technologies, a global telecommunications company and consumer electronics manufacturer. Piotr D and Weijing W. will spend at least three months in custody. The news came from Polish secret services.

Piotr D. used to be an executive in Internal Security Agency’s Department of IT Security as well as an employee of Orange and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. He was involved in developing Government Communications Network used for transferring classified information to top-level officials. Weijing W, before coming to Huawei, where he was responsible for sales, used to be working for the Chinese Embassy in Gdańsk.

Polish authorities received a note from Beijing saying Chinese authorities are “very concerned”. The Chinese expressed hope their citizen will be treated lawfully and with respect. Later, they issued a statement denying the allegations and highlighting the fact that so far, no proofs have been made public to sustain the bold claims. Huawei issued a cautious statement. The story was picked up world media, including Wall Street Journal, the Guardian and CNN.

There is some talk of banning Huawei from Polish IT market. The company is involved in the work surrounding the introduction of 5G network in Poland. The matter is currently under close scrutiny of the government’s cybersecurity experts. They are doing research as to whether electronics equipment provided by Huawei is in the hands and used by state administration and state-owned companies.

Poland is not the only country where Huawei got into trouble. The government of Czech Republic announced it will not use the conglomerate’s equipment. Several countries, including France, decided not to involve Huawei in the development of 5G.