Huawei fires Chinese employee held in Poland

BEIJING: Huawei said on Saturday it has ired a Chinese employee who was arrested in Poland on espionage allegations, as China’s telecom giant distanced itself from the case amid Western concerns that it could act as a proxy for Chinese security services.

This week’s detention of Wang Weijing follows the December arrest of Huawei’s chief inancial oficer in Canada and US efforts to blacklist the company internationally over security concerns.

While China’s government has vociferously defended Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and demanded her release, the irm swiftly sacked Wang, who works at its representative ofice in Poland.

“His alleged actions have no relation to the company,” Huawei said in a statement to AFP.

“In accordance with the terms and conditions of Huawei’s labour contract, we have made this decision because the incident in question has brought Huawei into disrepute,” it said.

“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.”

A Polish man was also arrested for alleged espionage along with Wang on Tuesday. Both men are suspected of having “worked for Chinese services and to the detriment of Poland,” said Polish special services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn.

He said their apartments and workplaces were searched, adding that the Polish suspect had worked “for several state institutions.”

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday it was “highly concerned” about the case and later said it was seeking to arrange a consular visit for Wang as soon as possible.

The Chinese embassy in Poland has also asked Warsaw to “effectively ensure the legitimate rights and interests, and humanitarian and safe treatment of the person involved.”

According to the Linkedin proile of “Stanislaw Wang” — Wang’s Polish name, according to Polish media TVP — the detained Huawei employee worked at the Chinese consulate in Gdansk, Poland prior to his tenure at the Chinese tech irm.

At Huawei, Wang worked as a public relations director for more than ive years before moving into his current role as sales director in 2017.

He is a graduate of the Beijing University of Foreign Studies.