Huawei, the world’s largest producer of telecoms equipment and smartphone manufacturer, has sacked a high ranked Chinese employee who was recently arrested on spying charges in Poland, as the company sought to distance itself from the incident.
Polish authorities detained Wang Weijing, the company’s sales director in Poland along with a former Polish security official this Friday. The detention came as part of an investigation into alleged violations of US trade sanctions. This arrest can further intensify the Western security concerns about Huawei and its relations with the Chinese Government.
Huawei has already been facing intense scrutiny in the West after the US President Donald Trump claimed its hardware could be used by China for spying. Ties between the US and China have become increasingly strained since Canadian authorities arrested a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, in December at the request of US authorities.
No evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has repeatedly denied the accusations. But, many Western countries have restricted Huawei’s access to their markets, which is causing the company a lot of financial damage.
On the other hand, Huawei insists that the charges against Wang are unrelated to the company. In a statement, Huawei said, “We are aware of the situation, and we are looking into it. We have no comments for the time being. Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, and we require every employee to abide by the laws and regulations in the countries where they are based.”
“In accordance with the terms and conditions of Huawei’s labor contract, we have made this decision because the incident has brought Huawei into disrepute,” the telecom company added.
While analysts claim that Western countries would have to consider the possible impact on the speed and cost of 5G development before jumping to any decision over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets or not.
Huawei is intensely engaged with 5G projects in Poland, and this most recent episode does nothing to quieten the voices that have expressed concerns regarding the company’s involvement in technology and infrastructure around the globe.
