HONG KONG/WARSAW—Chinese telecoms firm Huawei said on Jan. 12 it had sacked an employee arrested in Poland on spying charges in a case that could intensify Western security concerns about the company.
Poland’s internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudzinski, called for the European Union and NATO to work on a joint position over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets following the arrest of the Chinese employee and a former Polish security official on Jan. 11.
The two men have heard the charges and could be held for three months.
The firm has repeatedly denied the accusations, but several Western countries have restricted Huawei’s access to their markets.
In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill that barred the U.S. government from using Huawei equipment and is considering an executive order that would also ban U.S. companies from doing so.
“There are concerns about Huawei within NATO as well. It would make most sense to have a joint stance, among EU member states and NATO members,” he told private broadcaster RMF FM.
Seeking to distance itself from the incident, Huawei said in a statement that it had sacked Wang Weijing, whose “alleged actions have no relation to the company.”
“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 statement said.
A Huawei spokesman, Joe Kelly, declined to give any further details.
A spokesman for the Polish security services had told Reuters the allegations related to individual actions, and were not linked directly to Huawei.
A deputy digital affairs minister in Poland said, however, that Warsaw was analyzing any involvement by Huawei in building the country’s 5G telecommunications infrastructure, Money.pl portal reported.
Any decision by Western governments over whether to exclude Huawei from their markets would have to consider the possible impact on the speed and cost of 5G development, analysts say.
“My best-case outcome is that Europe uses this window of opportunity and figures out how to have a minimal risk for the best network possible,” said Jan-Peter Kleinhans, an IT security expert at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, a Berlin-based think-tank.
A LinkedIn profile for Wang showed he has worked for Huawei’s Polish division since 2011 and previously served as an attache to the Chinese consulate in Gdansk from 2006 to 2011. Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment via the social media site.
In a statement on Jan. 12, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Poland said the embassy had met with the Polish Ministry for Foreign Affairs over the detention of a Chinese citizen and had requested that the Chinese side is briefed on the matter and consular visits be arranged as soon as possible.
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