A study on the employment information of thousands of Huawei staff has revealed deeper links with the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus than those previously acknowledged by China’s biggest telecom equipment maker, reported the Financial Times.
The research was conducted by Christopher Balding, a professor at Fulbright University Vietnam, together with researchers at the Henry Jackson Society, a UK think tank. Trawling through a database of leaked Chinese CVs, they found Huawei employees who appeared to be simultaneously employed by institutions affiliated with the Chinese military, others who previously worked in areas related to hacking or telecom monitoring, and still more who described their work at Huawei as linked to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), an entity involved in cyber warfare and network penetration.
The paper, an initial evaluation of a trove of 200 million CVs including those of more than 25,000 Huawei employees, does not prove that the company is helping the Chinese state spy on western governments or companies — a risk US and Australian intelligence officials say arises from China’s record of cyber espionage and the technical possibilities of 5G. But the research is likely to further stir the debate over Huawei after Washington blacklisted Huawei earlier this year, said the FT.
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