China and Norway face off over ‘ridiculous’ claims Beijing is using Huawei to spy on Scandinavian host
- Chinese embassy in Oslo says Norway is working on a ‘hypothesis’
- Huawei denies ties to China beyond having its headquarters there
The Chinese embassy in Oslo hit back at Norwegian intelligence on Monday after the agency made “ridiculous” accusations that Beijing spied on its Scandinavian host.
“It’s ridiculous for the intelligence service of a country to make a security assessment and attack China with a hypothesis,” the embassy said.
The statement came after the Norwegian police intelligence agency PST, in its annual security evaluation, accused the Chinese government of stealing information from Norway’s cyber domain through technology provided by Huawei.
The embassy said Chinese law did not force companies to build “mandatory back doors” into networks.
Marie Benedicte Bjørnland, PST chief, said Chinese law compelled individuals and private companies such as Huawei to cooperate with Chinese authorities, Norwegian media reported.
“Everyone needs to pay attention to Huawei as a player in connection with the 5G network that will be built out,” Bjørnland said. “Huawei as a company has apparently tight connections to Chinese authorities”.
Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara announced measures to reduce the vulnerability of the Norwegian network.