Huawei Electronics Co. Ltd. has taken legal action in France against critics who claim it has ties to the Chinese government in what could be an interesting test case with global ramifications.

The world’s second-largest smartphone maker and leading 5G technology provider is currently tendering to provide its 5G tech in France. The lawsuit targets a researcher, a broadcast journalist and a telecommunications expert who claimed on French television that Huawei represented a threat to the republic because of alleged links to the Chinese government.

Huawei said in a statement its legal action related to claims “that Huawei is a company controlled by the Chinese State and the Chinese Communist Party, led by a former member of the ‘counter-intelligence’ and using its technological expertise in telecom networks to commit acts of espionage against the Western world.”

The claims against Huawei are not new but at least until now, they’ve never been properly tested in a court. The U.S. has been at the forefront of claims of security risks presented by the company, with both government agencies and legislators claiming that the company is spying on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

Allegations against Huawei have been floating around for years but came to the fore as the company became a leading player in 5G technology. Huawei was first accused of illegally sharing U.S. trade secrets in January 2018, opening the door for more and more accusations against the company.

In February the same year the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. National Security Agency all accused Huawei phones of being “Chinese spying devices” as they could be used for espionage, ignoring the fact that Google LLC and Apple Inc. phones are all made in China as well. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an inquiry in April 2018.

Fast-forward to this year and Huawei became fully persona non grata in a matter of months. The Justice Department sued Huawei in January, followed by legislation that banned the company from doing business with U.S. government departments. The legislation was appealed in court by Huawei and it lost the case, not on whether Huawei was spying for the Chinese government but on the basis that the order was constitutionally legal.

The Trump administration banned Huawei from having access to U.S. technology in May, a ban that has caused controversy ever since. Although Huawei has been granted some access via temporary licenses since then, complicating matters is that despite protestations that Huawei was working on behalf of the CCP, President Trump said May 23 that Huawei access could be on the table as part of a U.S.-China trade deal.

The timing of the lawsuit in France depends on a decision by the French prosecutors office. The case was lodged in March, with no decision on whether it will go ahead yet to be made.

Photo: Duncan Riley