By Henri Laherapartager:

24

Huawei obviously does not seem to be out of the crosshairs of many countries with regard to suspicions of espionage.Latest: the Netherlands.

After his setbacks in the United States, Huawei is again in the eye of the cyclone, on the European market this time.On Saturday April 17, the Dutch newspaper of Volkskrant published a investigation clearly accusing the Chinese spy giant.

An old survey

We learn that the firm would have had access to data of 6.5 million customers of the Dutch operator KPN, and this "unlimited, uncontrolled and unauthorized".The latter has operated Huawei's network equipment for over eleven years, just like Bouygues Telecom in France.Among the victims, important political figures such as Jan Peter Balkenende, the former Prime Minister (from 2002 to 2010), and other members of the government.

This survey is based on a 2010 report, carried out by the French company Capgemini.Stay secret since its publication, this document mentioned the existence of a real danger capable of "seriously threatening" the public authorities and the companies of the country.It appears that Huawei was able to listen and consult the data of customers.Six Chinese technicians were actually in office and had access to the heart of the network.Capgemini did not go so far as to say that Chinese employees had spied on conversations.

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Revelations that disturb

Obviously alarmed by these conclusions, KPN had also decided not to allocate the maintenance of its mobile network to Chinese, preferring Western competitors to it.Obviously, the operator had not communicated on this subject to his customers.Obliged to react to the publication of the investigation, the company wanted to be reassuring.

For his part, Huawei defended himself from any charging accusation, adding that the report in question had been submitted to the Dutch intelligence services more than ten years ago, without any official accusation being formulated.

The newspaper Le Monde nevertheless underlines the paradoxical situation of the Chinese giant, explaining that "even ousted from the United Kingdom or Sweden, Huawei still intends to play a crucial role in the development of the new 5G European network."Indeed, do without the expertise and logistics of the latter is more complicated than it seems, even if companies like Ericsson are already preferred by major European market players.Huawei banning could also have significant commercial impact if the Chinese government decided to apply restrictive measures against other firms on the old continent.