Thursday, February 8 (AFP) A judicial source reported to Agence France-Presse that the French offices of Chinese telecom company Huawei were raided on Tuesday, January 6, in a process related to suspected breaches of privacy. Confirming information from online media knowledgableThe source clarified that the preliminary investigation was conducted by a magistrate from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
The company, whose French headquarters are located in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hautes-de-Seine), a few steps from the Paris ring road, was not immediately available for further details on the facts alleged against it. Violations of integrity include crimes such as corruption, influence peddling and taking illegal interest.
magazine challenges Announced in April 2022 that a preliminary investigation had been launched in Nanterre into Huawei, assigned to a financial brigade from Paris, following a January 2021 report by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) into possible misuse of corporate assets and tax evasion. However, a judicial source interviewed by AFP revealed on Thursday that that was not the question “No investigation from Nanterre following AFA report”.
The company has a 20% share in the French market
Arriving in France in 2003, where the Chinese group opened six research centers and a global design center in Paris, Huawei is currently building a factory in Alsace, its first factory outside China, with the aim of launching there. “End of 2025” Manufacturing its equipment for mobile telecom networks including 5G networks.
Despite strong restrictions resulting from the so-called “anti-Huawei” law of 2019, the company claims a 20% share of the French telecoms infrastructure market, which aims to provide French networks “Espionage, Hacking and Sabotage Threats” Enabled by 5G.
Founded in 1987, Huawei, a privately owned, unlisted company, claims to employ more than 200,000 people in more than 170 countries and territories.
“Threat to the Security of the Union”
The group, based in the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, has been at the center of an intense technology rivalry between Beijing and Washington for several years. The United States accuses the company of being able to conduct espionage for the benefit of Chinese authorities, which Huawei strongly opposes. The brand is also the world’s leading equipment manufacturer for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet.
In June 2023, the European Commission estimated that Chinese telecom equipment suppliers, including Huawei, “A threat to the security of the Union » European.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, called on twenty-seven EU member states and telecom operators to exclude these devices from their mobile networks.
