Come on Huawei... Huawei general sales director in Poland gets arrested under charges of spying for China

[Morgan MLGman]

So this is today's news that's quite hot in Poland and just barely got posted on international sites.

Original source (in Polish): https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/abw-aresztowanie-dwoch-pracownikow-huawei-orange-polska-i-uke-sa-podejrzani-o-szpiegostwo
English source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/poland-arrests-huawei-employee-over-spying-allegations.html

 

So once again an important representative from Huawei was arrested under charges of espionage for China. The charges are "spying against Poland" which can mean up to 10 years in prison.
At this time, all three men will be held imprisoned for AT LEAST 3 months until further charges are pressed.

The men were arrested because the Internal Security Agency in Poland determined that they were in constant contact with Chinese Secret Service.

Quote

Poland's counterintelligence agency has arrested an employee of Chinese tech giant Huawei over spying allegations.Huawei's sales director and an ex-security agent were arrested on Tuesday by officers of the country's Internal Security Agency, charged with espionage.
 

The Huawei employee is reportedly a Chinese national, while the former security agent is said to be a Polish national who recently worked for Orange Polska. According to TVP, both will be kept in detention for at least three months.
 

Huawei and French telecommunications firm Orange's offices were searched and documents seized by the Internal Security Agency, the broadcaster [Polish national TV] reported.

This Sales Director responsible for Polish market is a Chinese citizen named Weijing W. The other two people that were arrested are Polish citizens, one of which works for the Polish department of a large French telecom company named "Orange S.A.". The other individual was an employee of a Polish government agency that has responsibilties similar to the F.B.I. in the U.S up until 2011.
The English source doesn't mention the 3rd person involved, however the Polish one does and it's definitely more up-to-date.

Official response from Huawei:

Quote

A spokesperson for Huawei said the company, which overtook Apple as the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer last year, is aware of the situation.

"Huawei is aware of the situation, and we are looking into it," the spokesperson said." "We have no comment for the time being."
 

The spokesperson added: "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."
 

Orange and Poland's Internal Security Agency were not immediately available for comment.

Conclusion? Well, this Polish security agency stated in December 2018 that they have no plans on ditching Huawei in terms of developing 5G network in Poland, I suppose this might be a subject to change after this news. We'll see how the investigation goes, I should be kept up-to-date by our local media so I can update this post when more news break out on this matter.

Your thoughts on this?

[UPDATE]
@Sauron An official statement from a government agency has appeared, it's brief but might answer your question:

Quote

Zatrzymany obywatel RP Piotr D. to były urzędnik państwowy, zaś obywatel Chin Weijing W. jest związany z chińską firmą telekomunikacyjną. Z materiałów zgromadzonych przez ABW wynika, że obaj prowadzili działalność szpiegowską przeciwko Polsce. W ramach prowadzonego śledztwa funkcjonariusze dokonali niezbędnych czynności procesowych, m.in. przeszukania mieszkań podejrzanych oraz zabezpieczenia dowodów.

In rough translation it means:

Quote

The arrested Polish citizen Piotr D. was a former government employee, and the Chinese citizen Weijing W. is tied to the Chinese telecom company [Huawei, he's the director of the Polish department of Huawei responsible for the public sector]
From the data gathered by the Internal Security Agency it looks like both of them commited treason against Poland by spying for Chinese government. During the investigation, the officers conducted necessary actions - search of apartments of the accused people and securing physical and digital evidence.

From what I found out, the Internal Security Agency was on the case for some time, gathering evidence after receiving "reports" possibly pointing to those people and the Chinese government.
The ISA also searched HQ of Orange Poland for additional evidence who complied with all of their requests.

The ISA official said that the espionage was related to the telecom industry, not military or security.

They also said that no further information will be released at this time as it's a part of a current investigation.

Source (in Polish sadly): https://www.tvn24.pl/polak-i-chinczyk-aresztowani-podejrzani-o-szpiegostwo,899387,s.html

 

[Morgan MLGman]

8 minutes ago, Strike105X said:

If this was the US i would have been tempted to have more doubts regarding the truth of the matter, it being Poland which is a pretty legit country makes me see there is more to this whole Huawei spying than meets the eye. Not that i care, i love my Honor note 8, as long as the info doesn't get publicly compromised i dont care about all the hentai they see me accessing.

Well, I could argue with the bolded part as a Polish native, especially considering our current government, but yeah, I'm in the IT industry in Poland and I've heard from inside sources that it's quite a serious deal so I decided to post news about it

[leadeater]

22 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

At this time, all three men will be held imprisoned for AT LEAST 3 months until further charges are pressed.

That's a surprisingly long time allowed to be held without charge, I guess that may be more specific to suspects of espionage etc?

[r2724r16]

29 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Your thoughts on this?

I don't understand how this is tech news.

[Morgan MLGman]

8 minutes ago, leadeater said:

That's a surprisingly long time allowed to be held without charge, I guess that may be more specific to suspects of espionage etc?

Actually not, it's a stupid law in Poland that allows the Police to hold someone in arrest for up to 3 months for any crime (of course the more severe ones). It includes selling drugs etc and espionage falls under that law too.

The problem with that law is that it's stated as a "preventive arrest" - i.e. to prevent any further crimes from the arrested person until the trial etc. And because of this fact, this 3-month "arrest" is not technically imprisonment because the person has not been legally sentenced.

And as a reason this 3-month arrest period can be extended pretty much indefinitely, there were cases of this arrest period lasting almost 10 years (!!!).

4 minutes ago, Geography said:

I don't understand why this is tech news.

I suppose for the same reason as the previous thread that reported the arrest of Huawei's CEO daughter.

 

[BananaInSandals]

 Plot twist: he sold the recipe of the favourite dish for the President of Poland to China!  

 

Jokes aside, I'm very interested in what he "spied". What could be so important that Huawei allows the sacrifice of a regional director instead of pushing some random poor guy to tank the hit?

 

4 minutes ago, Geography said:

I don't understand why this is tech news.

It's Huawei, a tech company. 

[r2724r16]

4 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I suppose for the same reason as the previous thread that reported the arrest of Huawei's CEO daughter.

And what was the reason?

[Lathlaer]

Yeah the preventive arrest should be temporary and used only in cases where there is hardly any doubt that the arrested person commited the crime but in reality it's heavily overused.

 

There is a reason Poland notoriously loses cases in the European Court of Human Rights.

[Morgan MLGman]

Just now, Geography said:

And what was the reason?

Response below:

1 minute ago, BananaInSandals said:

It's Huawei, a tech company. 

Also, Huawei has been accused of spying by multiple governments and companies so this is a new instance of this occuring and there are people who find this interesting. You might not, and that's fully understandable

[strajk-]

10 minutes ago, Geography said:

I don't understand how this is tech news.

A tech company uses tech means to conduct tech based espionage.

Really makes me think.

[Nicnac]

10 minutes ago, Geography said:

I don't understand how this is tech news.

I hate people bitching about something not being tech news. I've had an Article about a NASA mission moved to General Discussion because someone thought it wasn't "tech news". Why are there so many close-minded people here that can't appreciate something that is a little outside the box and not a review of some new cpu or gpu or phone?

[Morgan MLGman]

4 minutes ago, Lathlaer said:

Yeah the preventive arrest should be temporary and used only in cases where there is hardly any doubt that the arrested person commited the crime but in reality it's heavily overused.

 

There is a reason Poland notoriously loses cases in the European Court of Human Rights.

That's relevant so I'll add @leadeater to this response too.

Funnily enough, two guys I know (and went to high school with) recently (early November) got arrested for the same 3-month time period for having weed in their house and selling it to some their friends until they await trial Which is worse, espionage for a foreign government or selling some weed to friends?
Apparently there's no difference to our law system...

[Nena Trinity]

Poland & NATO is fascist! #leavehuaweialone #boycottApple >:O

[D13H4RD]

Now I'm curious as to why 

 

Considering that Poland is usually one of those countries that don't get caught up in the political BS that's been all over the world now. 

[aisle9]

52 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

inb4 China detains Polish ambassador

inb4 China realizes they don't have a Polish ambassador

[BananaInSandals]

13 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Which is worse, espionage for a foreign government or selling some weed to friends?

Selling some weed to friends because they didn't give some to the police.  Police are human who needs to be high too.  

[leadeater]

20 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Which is worse, espionage for a foreign government or selling some weed to friends?

Weed, duh.

 

Spoiler

 

Just say no.

 

D.A.R.E

 

Drugs are bad mmmkay

 

Butt Out

 

Quote

"If you don't smoke, you can grow up to be just like us!

 

......

 

 

 

[Delicieuxz]

1 hour ago, Geography said:

I don't understand how this is tech news.

 

58 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I suppose for the same reason as the previous thread that reported the arrest of Huawei's CEO daughter.

 

52 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Also, Huawei has been accused of spying by multiple governments and companies so this is a new instance of this occuring and there are people who find this interesting. You might not, and that's fully understandable

 

50 minutes ago, strajk- said:

A tech company uses tech means to conduct tech based espionage.

Really makes me think.

 

49 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

I hate people bitching about something not being tech news. I've had an Article about a NASA mission moved to General Discussion because someone thought it wasn't "tech news". Why are there so many close-minded people here that can't appreciate something that is a little outside the box and not a review of some new cpu or gpu or phone?

 

My guess is that Geography is advocating for the equal application of standards in reference to other cases where tech-related news were reacted to with prejudice from some people because their tech-related topics also implied things about persons with political associations (as do these Huawei arrests topics).

 

For example, these recent threads:

 

If we're honest, then I think we can say the only reason why Morgan MLGman's topic here, which I think is a good topic that should be available to be discussed, isn't as prone to being reported and cried about by the community as the one I made that was closed is because of the difference in who the topic shines an unflattering light on.

 

Typically, popular boogeymen will be open season and the majority of people will assert anyone raising issue with critically examining unflattering tech-related topics involving them is being unreasonable. However, for a lot of people, when the same types of tech-related topics are raised concerning their own 'teams', then suddenly their evaluation of the validity of discussing those things flips in polarity.

 

 

China is one of the West's popular boogeymen, and so mob consensus will be that it is open season for discussion of topics that are unflattering to China including its government as a political entity.

 

Russia is another popular boogeyman, and a topic about Russia's government banning Telegram that included comments with personal assessments and criticisms of the Russian government wasn't complained about.

 

However, if making a topic about the UK's state-funded "Integrity Initiative" social media propaganda and disinformation project that has recently had tons of its internal documents leaked showing it to be manipulating social media, many major Western news outlets, popular movements like Catalonia's independence movement, and governments to sow strong anti-Russia propaganda and policies, that very tech-related topic probably would not sit well with some people despite it being real and its importance. I have wanted to make that topic, BTW, but have refrained because of expectation that it would be received with prejudice.

 

 

I have no problems with any of these kinds of threads and I think that moderators shouldn't be baited into closing them or removing their posts by people who raise the 'not tech!' alarm not because the topic doesn't have enough tech implications or because the information isn't accurate or relevant, but because those people sometimes have a petty goal of provoking the censoring of a topic and ensuing information for the sake of shielding the things they're biased in favour of from receiving unflattering, though honest, attention.

 

Sorry to go sideways to Morgan's posted topic. These thoughts are relevant to the recent history of these topics at LTT, though.

[LAwLz]

Can I suggest you make it more clear that people from the Polish government and France (Orange) were also arrested?

Right now this threads sounds very anti Huawei/China but in reality the news are that they caught spies from three different country organisations. Seems unfair or biased to single out a single one when "spy from France telco caught in Poland" would be just as accurate as the current title.

 

 

43 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

I hate people bitching about something not being tech news. I've had an Article about a NASA mission moved to General Discussion because someone thought it wasn't "tech news". Why are there so many close-minded people here that can't appreciate something that is a little outside the box and not a review of some new cpu or gpu or phone?

If you ask me, I think LinusTechTips is a consumer electronics forum. "Tech news" usually means "consumer electronics news" and that seems to be the general rule of thumb, except when it's something readers on here might find interesting.

If we just go by the rule that anything remotely connected to "technology" or "science" can be posted here then I could easily fill several pages with news about microbiology that 1-2 people on the entire forum would find enjoyable, and that would not be good for the forum overall.

[Morgan MLGman]

3 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Can I suggest you make it more clear that people from the Polish government and France (Orange) were also arrested?

Right now this threads sounds very anti Huawei/China but in reality the news are that they caught spies from three different country organisations. Seems unfair or biased to single out a single one when "spy from France telco caught in Poland" would be just as accurate as the current title.

I put this part in the post:

Quote

This Sales Director responsible for Polish market is a Chinese citizen named Weijing W. The other two people that were arrested are Polish citizens, one of which works for the Polish department of a large French telecom company named "Orange S.A.". The other individual was an employee of a Polish government agency that has responsibilties similar to the F.B.I. in the U.S up until 2011.

Some of this information was only present in Polish sources at the moment of writing so I added more information than what CNBC reported...

All three people were connected to both Huawei and Chinese government as it turned out so I mentioned Huawei in the title, it was in no way my intention for the title to appear clickbait-ish or something of this sort...

Thanks for your input, I'll take that into consideration and will consult this matter with other mods.

[LAwLz]

Just now, Morgan MLGman said:

I put this part in the post:

 Some of this information was only present in Polish sources at the moment of writing so I added more information than what CNBC reported...

All three people were connected to both Huawei and Chinese government as it turned out so I mentioned Huawei in the title, it was in no way my intention for the title to appear clickbait-ish or something of this sort...

Thanks for your input, I'll take that into consideration and will consult this matter with other mods.

Oh okay. I did not know that the person from Orange and the person from the Polish government were working for China too. In that case it makes more sense to single out China in the title.

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Your thoughts on this?

This is starting to look like McCarthyism... what does Poland even have that is worth spying on (no offense)? Where is the evidence of said spying? How would the general sales director of Huawei get the opportunity of spying on Polish national secrets?

 

To be clear, I don't consider it beyond the Chinese government to spy other countries, possibly through their larger international export companies, but I also think this sort of allegations need to be backed up by more than words.

Quote

The men were arrested because the Internal Security Agency in Poland determined that they were in constant contact with Chinese Secret Service.

So... is this an admission that Poland was spying on them too? Or are we just supposed to take their word for it?

[Morgan MLGman]

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

This is starting to look like McCarthyism... what does Poland even have that is worth spying on (no offense)? Where is the evidence of said spying? How would the general sales director of Huawei get the opportunity of spying on Polish national secrets?

 

To be clear, I don't consider it beyond the Chinese government to spy other countries, possibly through their larger international export companies, but I also think this sort of allegations need to be backed up by more than words.

Unfortunately no more information is available at the time as the investigation is currently ongoing, it's a very fresh news even in Poland so I'll definitely update the thread with specifics.

I honestly have no idea why would they spy in this country, besides the fact that it became a huge market for chinese phones though so it might be related to that. Xiaomi and Huawei/Honor became the most popular phones in Poland over barely 3 years. Other than that, there's nothing here that other developed countries do not have. And it's DEFINITELY not military secrets because our military is a joke.

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

So... is this an admission that Poland was spying on them too? Or are we just supposed to take their word for it?

Possibly, however I somewhat doubt it as it's three different people working in three different places (although in the same industry field) that were seemingly unrelated to each other.
My bet would be on someone reporting the issue after seeing some suspicious activity, however it's only speculation because no other information is available at this time.

I'll definitely update the thread if something new pops up.

[Arika]

so are they being charged with direct espionage (as in, they as individuals were the ones doing it)? or is it just because they work for Huawei?

[williamcll]

More market for Xiaomi and OnePlus